this is halloween
by queen caffeine
Summary: "Are you scared yet? ...No? Well, you should be." —ppg/rrb original pairings
1. party gone wrong

**disclaimer: no.  
dedication: TO HALLOWEEN BECAUSE I LOVE THIS FRICKIN HOLIDAY. also Halloween is coming up in like a week fUCK YEAH. I'M SO EXCITED.  
** **note: all of these stories are collaborations with chokecherries, one of my super close friends on here. so she gets credit too fam!  
note2: marcy (chokecherries) and I take no responsibility for any conditions (i.e. nightmares, tears, broken hearts, etc.) that are results of these stories. ;]  
playlist: um, just find creepy/Halloween/dark playlists and listen to them. that is all.**

.

.

Blossom has nothing against Halloween. In fact, she quite enjoys the holiday, even if the origins are a bit dark. She's not one to dress up and go out to parties, instead she prefers to stay home and hand out candy to all the little kids in their diverse costumes. They're adorable, no denying it.

This Halloween, as usual, Bubbles and Buttercup left a few hours earlier to go out to some party a boy from their school is throwing. Bubbles bounced out of the house in a pretty white angel costume and Buttercup ran out with her, shouting her goodbye from behind her Catwoman mask.

That was about three hours ago.

She's trying not to worry. Her sisters are _Powerpuff Girls,_ for Pete's sake. They're fine! They know how to handle themselves!

….But there's that small little knot of worry and anxiety in the pit of her stomach. She knows they should be home by now.

Blossom comes to a decision. The Professor is in the lab, probably asleep at his desk again. She's going out to find her sisters and bring them home, or at least make sure they're okay. The redhead rises from the couch, straightens her skirt and grabs a cardigan. Her boots go on over her tights-clad legs, and finally she's ready to brave the chilly fall air.

The first thing she notices when she steps out the front door is that there's no one outside (no duh Blossom, it's almost eleven at night what did you expect). She's walking for a few minutes and still not seeing anyone.

Then, she feels something touch her shoulder and screams. Loudly.

But when she turns around, no one's there. It makes her nervous (she's already anxious enough) until she notices something flickering behind a nearby dumpster. She huffs.

"Okay. Come on guys. This isn't funny." The figure doesn't respond, and her irritation falters. Who _is_ that?

She looks again, and the figure is gone. Laughter starts up, and it sends a chill down her spine and brings goosebumps to her skin, and she curls into herself.

"Buttercup, if this is some prank you're playing on me with Butch, you can stop now. It's not funny anymore guys."

The eerie cackling has stopped, but then the street lights start to flicker out. Blossom's scared now. They're taking this way too far—

A hand touches her shoulder and she lurches, screaming bloody murder—

" _Fuck!_ Do you have to scream like a banshee?"

x

Blossom presses her hands to her chest and looks up at a cringing Brick. "Don't _scare_ me like that!"

He rustles the hair under his cap and gives her a look. "You're the one who looked like she was about to faint."

"What are you doing out here?" Blossom asks him.

"Looking for my brothers. I got this fucking weird message from Boomer so I came to drag their asses back home. The real question here is, what are _you_ doing out here? Shouldn't you be inside? It's like midnight." Blossom rolls her eyes, but is secretly happy Brick's with her because she doesn't feel so scared anymore and the chill has left. For now.

"I'm looking for Bubbles and Buttercup...they never came home." Brick looks at her, like _really_ looks at her. She's pale, not as white as she was a minute ago, but still, there's a lot of color that's missing from her face. Her hands are clutching at the sleeves of her jacket and she's faintly shaking. What the hell happened to her?

"You said you got a weird message from Boomer?" She looks up at him, pink eyes wide. He nods.

"What did he say?" He pulls out his phone and unlocks it, turning up his volume a bit and playing the voicemail.

 _'Brick, it's Boomer. Listen, this is going to sound freaking weird, but Butch and I are here at the Halloween party with Buttercup and Bubbles. You know, the one I told you about? In Carson's mansion? Anyway, we're here, we met up with the girls, but something's off about this place. I don't know what it is but I don't like it. I think we're gonna leave soo -'_

And just like that, the line goes dead. No warning, nothing. Just...silence. A sudden breeze ruffles Blossom's hair and she jumps, wrapping her arms around herself. Brick looks up at her, then at their surroundings. It's gotten darker, and the streetlights are the only things lit, making shadows very prominent.

"That...didn't sound good." Blossom says quietly. Brick shakes his head. On the outside, he looks calm, almost bored. On the inside? He's got a gut feeling that his brothers are in trouble.

"C'mon red...let's go get our siblings back." He walks ahead of her, towards Carson's neighborhood. Blossom falls into step next to him, and it's quiet save for their footsteps. Subconsciously, she shifts closer to the taller, broader boy. She doesn't notice, too preoccupied with glancing worriedly at their surroundings, but Brick does. He wants to put his arm around her, but doesn't.

After about five minutes they reach Carson's house. It's huge, with an iron-wrought gate around it and a long, winding driveway.

They press the buzzer to be let inside, but no one responds. Neither of them say it out loud, but they both have a feeling it's best not to fly over the fence. Finally, Brick just huffs impatiently and places his hands on the iron. A moment passes, and the iron turns red then melts away. He pries open the bars and slips through, reaching back to help Blossom.

"Shouldn't there be...people here?" Blossom all but whispers as they walk up the driveway to the front door. "It looks deserted."

Brick doesn't respond, but his eyebrows are furrowed. At the front door, he knocks. No answer.

"This is like something out of a fucking horror movie..." He mutters under his breath. Blossom steps forward and blows on the door handle, making ice appear. She cracks a hand down on the ice and it shatters, opening the door. To her relief, it doesn't creak. That would've put her nerves on edge even more.

Brick goes in first. He tells himself that it's because he just wants to find his brothers and drag them out of here, but really it's because he doesn't want Blossom to get hurt. She stays close behind him.

The inside of the mansion is dark, and there are noticeable remnants of a party, but it looks wrong. Cups are crushed, liquid seeping out of them and staining the floor. Party hats are strewn around, all of them either ripped or squashed. Tables are overturned, orange and black streamers hanging limply from the ceiling. There's even some costume accessories lying around; a blue wig on the couch, a striped scarf on the floor, a pair of googly-eye glasses broken in two under an end table.

"Something's not right." Blossom whispers. She's got a bad feeling about this...

"Tell me about it." Brick mumbles in reply. They step gingerly around the destruction; eyes peeled for any signs of...anything, really. Brick is looking through the doorway to another room when Blossom notices something strange. There's what looks to be a puddle of...punch, she thinks? In the corner, but it's shaped weird and doesn't look exactly like juice. She walks over to it, and once she gets a good look she has to clamp her hand over her mouth to stifle a scream. Brick is at her side in an instant, looking over her shoulder. His eyes widen and this time, he does put his arm around Blossom, drawing her away from it.

There, on the floor, is a message.

 _'YOU'LL NEVER FIND THEM'_

It's written in blood.

x

"Please tell me it's just ketchup."

Brick doesn't say a word as Blossom trembles against him. She's not just cold and frightened per se, although the temperature in the house is astoundingly low, but there's something...off, in the atmosphere. It feels so very _wrong_. She thinks she's going to be sick. Like she doesn't belong in her own skin. It makes her want to jump off the highest rooftop in the city and not catch herself.

She squeezes her eyes shut. "Ohmygosh. It's blood. Isn't it. There is actual blood on that floor and this isn't just some sick joke and..."

Brick steps forward to take a closer look— _hell_ , it _is_ real, what is this? Blossom is ghostly pale and shaking like a leaf behind him, and for once in her life, she's terrified. They need to get out of here as soon as possible.

"Come on, we need to go—"

She's got his hoodie sleeve in a death grip as they make their way around the wreckage to the front door. It's still open from when they came in, but as soon as he reaches for the handle, the door slams shut with such a sudden force it startles Blossom. She jumps and let's go of his sleeve, eyes wide and growing wider. Her breath catches in her throat as Brick tries to get the fucking doors to just _open_.

"Brick...do you feel that?"

Her voice is quiet, shaky, breathless. He glances at her from the corner of his eye, getting ready to just blast through the damn solid wood.

"It's—"

Blossom cuts herself off with a bloodcurdling scream as she slams onto the floor and is quickly dragged back into the shadows.

" _BRICK!_ "

She's clawing desperately for a hold, and he turns just in time to see her frightened eyes before she disappears entirely, and the whole house is unearthly quiet.

Then—

He's over to where she disappeared in an instant, knocking things over and calling out her name. Shit shit _shit_. Obviously she'd felt _something_ , why hadn't he listened to her? Now whatever it was had his brothers, Buttercup and Bubbles, and _her_.

"GIVE HER BACK. DON'T YOU FUCKING TOUCH HER."

x

She's cold. And there's something against her mouth, but she can't see anything there. She can't open her mouth; some _thing_ is holding her against her will and preventing her from moving. And the worst part?

Brick's right in front of her. He's still beating against the wall where she was disappeared, screaming for her, cursing to kingdom come, and she _can't move_. She's so cold. She shouldn't be cold, she's _immune_ for crying out loud, she breathes _ice!_ Why is she so cold?!

It's as if there's an invisible wall in front of her, separating her and Brick. She's cold and helpless and something is holding her and chills are running down her spine and goosebumps are raised on her skin.

Then, the laugh. It's the same laugh from earlier, when she thought it was Buttercup and Butch. Except this time, it's right in her ear.

She loses it. All other thoughts vanish from her mind as pure _panic_ takes over. Her heart rate skyrockets and she kicks and bites and thrashes in her captor's grip. The laugh stops, replaced with an inhuman snarl, but that only gives her a fresh wave of terror and adrenaline to use to her advantage. Whatever it is - she doesn't want to think about it or she'll lose her nerve - slips from her mouth and she screams as loud as she can. Brick freezes, and his frantic searching and banging and yelling intensifies. She keeps screaming, fighting the thing holding her. Something scratches against her cheek, then her arm, ripping the sleeve of her sweater.

She screams again, even louder this time. Tears gather in her eyes and she squeezes them shut, full on crying now. She lurches her body forward, and actually falls _through_ the shadows and out of the wall. Her back hits the floor hard and she feels something slice against her thigh, a stinging sensation following. Blossom claws at the ground around her, kicking and screaming and practically rolling around on the floor, trying to get that - that - _thing_ off of her.

She manages to get a glance at the hold around her leg, and is horrified to see nothing but two pitch black, clawed hands holding her.

They belong to a shadow with no face, only a wide, gaping mouth stained red, with pointed shark teeth. It hisses at her and she promptly kicks it in the face with her boot.

Suddenly, there's a wave of heat, and the - whatever it is - snarls as a blast of fire comes into contact with it. The force of the blast throws it back and it finally, _finally_ lets go of her. Blossom scrambles away from the wall, crab walking backwards as fast as she can, chest heaving and tears streaming down her face.

And then Brick is there. He's kneeling, hands cupping her face and eyes taking in her shaking, pale, and bloodied form. His own eyes darken considerably.

"What. The fuck. Was that." He demands. Blossom lets out a sob, nerves completely wrecked. Her leg is burning, her tights ripped where the thing clawed her. Her tears mix with the blood on her now-numb cheek.

"I-I don't know." She says. Her voice is scratchy. "It, it was holding me behind the _wall_ , and I started fighting it, and I fell, I _fell through the wall_ and -" Another sob escapes. "It was a _shadow_ Brick. It didn't have a face, just a mouth. Shark teeth a-and dripping blood. I heard it, before, when you scared me outside. It was laughing, that's why I was so...scared."

Brick doesn't know what to say. He does know that they have to find their siblings. And get the fuck away from this goddamned horror house.

"Alright red, calm down." He says. Blossom inhales shakily and wipes at her face. Blood smears across her cheek and hand, and Brick's temper flares at the thought of that ghost-whatever hurting her. "Here's what we're gonna do. You've seen horror movies right?" She nods, although she doesn't look happy about it. "Where're the ghosts usually hiding?"

"Usually upstairs." She whispers. Brick nods.

"Right. So we gotta go up there, find the damn things, and get our siblings back." She nods. Brick scoops her up (she's fucking short, he notices, not for the first time) and sets her on her feet as gently as possible. Her knees buckle for a moment before she straightens. Her face is still unnaturally pale, and her hands won't stop shaking.

"You ready?" he asks, though he knows the answer.

"No." She responds. "But let's do it anyway." They walk towards the staircase, and Blossom's shaking hand finds its way into his. They say nothing, the temperature gradually dropping as they go. The air is still, but unpleasantly so. Every shadow is an enemy, every movement a ghost. Brick is tense. Blossom feels like she's going to faint.

They get to the staircase, and look up. There's only ominous darkness ahead of them.

"Yep, we're headed the right way." Brick grumbles. He tightens his grip on Blossom's hand - he was _not_ losing her _again_ goddammit - and starts to climb the stairs.

x

The floor is creaky.

Of course.

What floor in a haunted house _isn't_ creaky? And it's still so cold, her hands feel like ice. Literally.

Shouldn't she be able to raise her body temperature? Brick doesn't look as cold, and his hand is warm.  
Blossom's gaze jumps around warily, looking for any signs of people or the being that'd held her. She shudders. She's going to be having nightmares for sure.

Her entire body feels heavy but her head is so light—is she dizzy? The cut on her leg hurts, and the one on her cheek. She has nail marks on her skin, digging deep into her flesh like it was trying to tear it away. Shouldn't the chemical X be healing them?

The house is deathly quiet, and it makes her skin crawl.

She almost screams when she kicks something, and Brick turns back to look at her. She's busy staIring at the broken halo on the floor. Plenty of other girls could've gone as angels, right? That's what she tries to tell herself, but she knows—she knows that this is the one Bubbles was wearing when she cheerfully waved goodbye.

"I'm never letting them out of the house on Halloween ever again," She mumbles, barely audible.

The floor creaks.

It's driving her up the wall. In fact, maybe she's there already.

Brick's been trying all the door knobs since they reached the second floor, but none of them have opened. Then—one does.

The door cracks and Blossom is hit with this awful, awful feeling. "D...don't go in there," She shakes her head.

He nudges it open a little farther and glances back at her. "I won't even be gone for three seconds."

But don't you know, she wants to shout, don't you know bad things always happen when people split up? Has he not seen Scooby-Doo? His hand slips out of hers, and he disappears into the dark room.

Blossom counts in her head, because she's going to hold it against him if he's gone for more than his allotted time.

One Mississippi.

Two Mississippi.

Three Mississippi.

She's at twenty-seven and nearly tearing the sleeves of her jackets when he comes back out.

Blossom is a little peeved, but mostly worried. "'Three seconds' Brick? You were gone for longer than that."

See. Holding it against him.

"Sorry," he says, and reaches for her hand.

Sorry.

 _Sorry._  
 _ **  
Sorry.  
**_  
Brick doesn't apologize.

He should've thrown something back at her. Like, like 'you're such a girl' or...or 'three seconds isn't enough time to check a room, you insufferable harpy', or something. But he didn't.

Blossom jerks her hand back and stumbles backward. Brick regards her in annoyance.

"What are you doing? We don't have time for this. Come on, Blossom."

She shakes her head. "No."

He raises a brow. "What?"

The Powerpuff girl clutches at her jacket, staring at him with wide and glowing pink eyes. "You didn't insult me." She takes another step backward.

"You didn't swear." She's going to be sick.

"You didn't have a comeback when I nagged you." Blossom bites her lip. "You're not Brick."

His annoyed expression turns into the most horrible smile she's ever seen in her life. His eyes aren't their bloody red anymore, but black and unnerving. He says, in Brick's voice,

"You're right."

Blossom turns to run but he's there, pressing her to the wall, hand tight around her throat.

She kicks and struggles, but he's always been strong—stronger now with that...that _thing_ taking control of him. She has to snap him out of it somehow. She grasps his hand and tries to pull it off, but his grip only gets tighter.

"He cares about you." Her heart stops. "I'm going to make him watch as I kill you by his own hands."

She doesn't like looking into his eyes—all the chaos, strife, and pure _evil_ just pooling in the endless darkness. She doesn't doubt a word he says, and Brick is still in there, somewhere. Maybe she can taunt him out of it.

"I thought you were stronger than this," She wheezes. "But some ghost got the best of you? You're..." She's not good at this. "You're...weaker than I thought. Just some...stupid Rowdyruff boy who— _AH!_ "

Blossom's struggling starts to slow as her vision is going blurry. The taunting thing isn't working, maybe if he'd been Butch...her lungs are burning and Brick looks angry.

There is one thing left she can try.

Shock him out of being possessed.

Blossom closes her eyes and takes as big a breath as she can, and then leans forward. He's close, just close enough to do this.

She presses her lips against his, and Brick—or the ghost in Brick's body—makes a startled sound. But the chokehold he has on her loosens, and his hand brushes the cut on her cheek.

She pulls back and sinks to the floor, gasping for breath. When blossom looks up, she's relieved to see his eyes are red again. He looks horrified, and she almost laughs. And then she remembers what just happened and shies away from him.

"Are you...is that you, Brick?" He brushes his mouth with the back of his hand and stares down at her.

"Just some stupid Rowdyruff, huh? You sure know how to piss a guy off, babe. You can't just fucking kiss someone while they're possessed." She gives him a weak smile as he helps her up.

"Right, well. I saved you. What would you do without me?"

He rolls his eyes. "Probably be better off."

x

He doesn't let go of her hand. She doesn't want him to.

"Let's go." Brick nods his head down the hall, where more doors await.

"How many fucking doors does this place have?" Brick mutters angrily as he tries - unsuccessfully - to open another door. Blossom doesn't answer. She's watching the shadows around them warily. She wants nothing more than to high-tail it out of this place, but she has to find her sisters. And Brick's brothers. They won't leave without them.

 _'I'm going to need therapy after this'_ , she thinks fearfully, resisting the urge to jump when she thinks she sees something out of the corner of her eye.

They continue down the hallway. As they walk past picture frames, Blossom sees three of them...flicker? She looks twice, but Brick isn't paying attention. He's busy staring down the hall.

"What...?" She leans closer, eyes wide and breath short. She feels like her heart is going to beat out of her chest at this point. She doesn't think she's ever been so _scared_ in her entire life. The air feels _wrong_ , but she doesn't know what it is. She can't put her finger on it.

Just then, right before she turns away, the pictures _move_. She leans back, a sharp gasp escaping her throat. Shadows stretch from the frames and melt down the wall, slithering around her feet.

"Brick -!" The shadows form a circle around her feet and when Brick turns around, they leap up from the floor, breaking their hands apart and spinning around Blossom. Wicked laughs echo around her as the shadow tornado spins faster and faster. The sounds grate on her ears, and Blossom can only just make out Brick through the wall of shadows.

Brick is _this fucking close_ to burning this stupid house to the ground. He watches, wide eyed, as the shadows surround Blossom, breaking her away from him for a _third_ time. Her hair is flying, whipping around her, eyes wide and glowing bright pink. She's too pale, and her scratches are bleeding more. She's shivering and gasping and the shadows are s _till_ laughing evilly.

"I'm so fucking tired of you little shits!" Brick snarls, anger flaring higher than it ever has. They don't fucking _touch her_. Not her. Not while he's still breathing. Blossom's reaching for him, fighting against the stupid things, and Brick comes closer. His hair is being whipped against his neck, and he's glad it's tied back and under his hat.

"Let her _go!_ " His eyes are fierce, jaw set, and fire envelops his palms. He sees the slightest shudder in the shadow tornado. It's there one moment, gone the next, and if Brick was anyone else he would've missed it. But he's not. He's Brick. So of course he sees. He doesn't make a plan, simply going on pure instinct and anger. These motherfuckers are gonna regret ever messing with him. They're gonna regret ever messing with _Blossom._

He leaps at the wall of shadows and the laughs turn to shrieks and hisses. Blossom stumbles, falling to the floor as the shadows flinch away from her and Brick all of a sudden. They try to avoid the flames but Brick grabs one by the neck and has it in a death grip. It's clawing at him, hissing and baring its razor sharp teeth, but he barely notices.

"BRICK WATCH IT -" Blossom screams, eyes wild. He glances at her then feels a sharp pain as his hoodie sleeves are taken hostage by the remaining shadows. They try to get in his face, wrapping their snakelike arms around his sleeves. Brick's eyes glow a bright, blood red and he tenses.

"Eat this fuckers!" He growls before fire erupts from his arms as well. They shadows wail as they're burned; five, six, seven inch flames leaping from his skin. After about ten seconds they're gone, and a pile of gray ashes rests by his feet, the remnants of his hoodie sleeves. His arms are bare now, and Blossom clutches at the front of his hoodie when he helps her up. She hugs him tightly, and he wraps his now bare arms around her.

"Well...they don't like fire." She observes, voice shaky. Brick nods.

"After we find our siblings I'm gonna fucking burn this shitty place to the ground." He grouses. Blossom tries to laugh, but it's breathless and whispy and sounds more like a sob.

"I won't stop you." She agrees. They let go of each other, but Brick's grip on her hand is firm and the heat from his skin - intensified now because of what just happened - seeps into her own. She's so _cold_. The heat feels nice.

A crunching noise comes from under Brick's foot, and Blossom holds her breath. He lifts his foot, and underneath is...

"Boomer's cell phone." Brick says quietly. He reaches down and scoops it up. It's a mess of cracked glass and plastic with stray wires poking out, and it's smeared with something, something that looks a lot like...

"More blood?" Blossom whispers hoarsely. Brick says nothing, but he nods faintly. Not for the first time, she feels woozy.

"What the fuck _happened?_ " Brick wonders, eyebrows furrowed. He lets the phone drop to the floor and wipes his hand on his jeans. "C'mon. I'm not done with these assholes just yet."

x

"What time is it?" Blossom wonders aloud. She left about ten and it feels like it's been _hours_ since she ran into Brick on the sidewalk. "My watch isn't working. I think it got smashed or something when I crashed through the wall."

Brick snorts. "You wear a _watch_?"

"Yes," She snaps. "We are being attacked in a house haunted by a poltergeist apparently. So what if I want to know what time it is?"

He rolls his eyes and slips his phone out of his pocket. She'd left hers at home. "Eleven thirty. There, happy now?"

Blossom hisses as she accidentally puts too much weight on her hurt leg. "Thank you."

"What makes you think it's a poltergeist?"

She rubs her arm. "Well it's attacking us, isn't it? And causing trouble? That's what poltergeists do. Sometimes they have a reason, sometimes they don't. But this one is especially vicious," She glances down at her injuries and then back up at Brick. "So. Yes. Poltergeist. Maybe it wants something."

Brick looks at her incredulously. "Like _what_?"

She shrugs and gestures wildly with the hand that's not slipped into his. "How should I know? That thing was inside of _your_ head, did you pick up anything from it? Emotions, ambitions, the sudden urge to murder me in cold blood?"

A look of hurt flashes through his eyes at the last part, but maybe she's imagining it. "I was...so fucking angry. Or that's what I got from it, anyway. At everything."

He notices the furious hand-marks around her throat and looks away.

Blossom nods, inching a little closer to him as the creepy feeling intensifies again. "So it doesn't like light, and it's angry. Anything else?"

What he doesn't want to tell her, of course, is that the ghost...thing was only hurting her to hurt _him_. It liked him being in the position where Blossom was suffering but he couldn't do anything to get to her.

"It feeds off of fear. Probably chaos too."

Blossom raises a brow at him. "I thought you weren't afraid of anything. Well, okay. That gives us something to work with, at least."

Brick doesn't look at her. "How huge is this fucking house anyway?"

"Language," she hushes. "Listen, I have a plan and—"

She quiets immediately at the sight waiting for them at the end of the hall. Brick steps in front of her but she peers around his shoulder in disbelief.

Because standing there, looking a little worse for wear but still alive, is Bubbles. The blonde looks relieved to see them, and takes a few steps in their direction.

"Blossom, Brick! I'm so glad to see you!"

Blossom is strangely quiet, so Brick decides to take up the initiative of finding out what's going on. "What the hell happened here?"

Bubbles slumps. "It was _awful_. some...some _thing_ took everyone. I got away...but..." She looks up at them, eyes brighter than either redhead has ever seen them. "But then you came."

She motions for them to follow her. "I overhead something earlier. The ghost can't do anything after midnight. If we can get everyone out before then, nothing will happen. Come on, I know where everyone is."

Blossom holds Brick back. "That's not Bubbles," She murmurs.

Then, she proceeds to fire a beam from her free hand. It hits Bubbles square in the back...and goes through her. The hole in her stomach weaves itself back together and she turns, eyes wild and gaping mouth dripping an awful black substance onto the floor. Decidedly Not-Bubbles reaches out a hand and Brick and Blossom push away from each other as it shoots between them, the blackness finding nothing to grab on to.

Blossom raises both her fists and fires, and the dark hallway explodes with a bright pink light. When it's over, there's nothing but a sizzling spot on the floor, and outline of what used to be on the wall, and some black splatters on the floor.

Brick is, for lack of a better term, gawking without actually gawking. Blossom brushes her smoking hands off on her ripped clothes and huffs. "I hate haunted houses."

"How'd you know it wasn't her?"

She smiles awkwardly. "Sister's intuition? Also, she'd never leave the house without lip gloss. I could tell she wasn't wearing any."

Brick blinks, and Blossom brushes some fringe out of her eyes. "That thing said whatever is infesting this place can't do anything after midnight, right? We just have to stick it out a little longer. And besides," She stomps the floor with her good foot. "I know where everyone is."

x

The two of them are in the kitchen, and Brick is regarding Blossom with a great amount of skepticism.

She points to the floor. "Okay so, a lot of old houses have these secret passageways, right? Well, I read in a book once that sometimes they have cisterns, too. Every time we were attacked, I noticed something wet. I don't think it was just the ghost, I think it was water. It's coming from the cistern, Brick."

He nods. "Makes sense. So how're we going to find this thing?"

Blossom gives him a sheepish look. "…River dancing."

"What," he deadpans.

She flushes. "You know, like—like this."

The commander and leader taps and stomps around the wooden floor a couple of times. "We learned it in dance class, okay. It'll help us find loose floorboards."

Brick rolls his eyes but joins in. "River dancing," he mutters under his breath.

But it pays off, and all the clatter stops when he steps on a board that sounds a little different from the others. He awkwardly taps the surrounding ones, and shares a glance with Blossom. They pull up the boards in record time and stare down into the musky-smelling hole.

This is it.

x

"Should we...jump?" Blossom asks quietly, staring down into the cistern-well. Brick shakes his head.

"And get flattened at the bottom? No thanks." He lights his fist on fire again and holds it the mouth of the well, peering down.

"Look, there's a ladder here anyway." He turns and places his palms flat against the floorboards, lowering himself into the well. Blossom watches him, her nerves returning. Yeah, she just killed a ghost-shadow-thing, but that doesn't mean she isn't still hyper-aware of the... _vibes_ , you could say, in a room.

And the kitchen's vibes right now are far from friendly.

Brick descends into the well, fist still flaming to provide light. Once he's a good couple yards down, he motions for Blossom to follow. She does so, but right before she lets go of the floorboards, a shadow on the wall catches her eye. It smiles evilly at her, and her stomach drops. She ducks into the well, but in her haste she puts her weight on the rung with her right leg, her bad one. Her knee buckles and she almost falls, but Brick's hand presses against the small of her back, stopping her.

"Watch what you're doing, red!" He says. Blossom swallows and her grip on the rungs tightens even further.

"Y-yeah." Before Brick can say anything else, there's a crash, and the entrance to the well was covered.

"Shit!" Brick exclaims. Blossom bangs against the wood covering it, to no avail.

"That ghost, I saw it as I was coming down, it must have covered the hole!" She says, dismayed.

"Forget it, we'll just blast through the damn thing once we find the others." Brick starts down the ladder, Blossom following, albeit a bit slower.

The well isn't freezing, but it's unpleasantly cold. It smells of stale water and musty earth, and the only sounds are those of Blossom's and Brick's breathing. The flickering flame in Brick's hand is the only source of light. Blossom examines the ladder for any hints as to who they're dealing with.

It looks old, and it's made of metal. The rungs are dusty, some places more so than others. It looks like it hasn't been used in a long, long time.

After two minutes Blossom's cuts are beginning to sting unbearably.

At three minutes her right leg goes numb.

At four minutes her arms are shaking, partially from exhaustion, and partially from the injuries. She briefly wonders if the shadows' claws are poisoned. Will she get infected?

At five minutes she's less focused on herself and more on the fact that this well is _never ending_.

Blossom tries to distract herself by figuring out a plan. Only, there are a lot of crucial factors missing. Exactly when did this well end? Where did it end? Would they find their siblings immediately, or have to search even longer for them? Just how many shadows were there? Were they being controlled by one being? If so, who is controlling everything? What do they want?

She's shaken from her ramblings by Brick.

"Heads up," He says, before letting go of the ladder and dropping down a few feet, landing with a splash.

"Is it deep?" Blossom asks. He shakes his head.

"No, but it's fucking cold."

"Language." She half-heartedly reprimands. She continues down the last few rungs and follows him, landing with a splash of her own. The water's deeper than she imagined, almost to her knees, and the impact jars her numb leg, giving her pins and needles. She grits her teeth at the chilled water. It soaks through her tights easily and fills her boots.

They look around. Above them is the well, and the walls around them are rounded and wet, the ceiling low. They're in a tunnel, with water up to their shins.

"It's like being in a sewer." Brick comments. They turn and walk down the circular tunnel; Brick's fire still the only light source.

The air is cold and still, like the water, and it's not long before Blossom is shaking again. Brick has a tight hold of her hand, and they wade through the tunnel together. The water is dark, almost black. Up ahead, they see that the tunnel is blocked off.

"What the fuck?" Brick mutters, tugging Blossom forward. She says nothing, but she feels the temperature drop. The atmosphere changes.

They're close.

"It looks like someone boarded it up." She observes, tapping on the wood in front of them. It's a wall of boards, all nailed together haphazardly, as if the person who did it was in a rush. Brick looks down at Blossom.

"What do you wanna bet the others are behind this wall?" She rolls her eyes, but takes a step back. Brick sends a solid punch to the middle of the wood barrier, and it splinters and breaks, his hand going right through. He raises a foot, water streaming off of his converse, and kicks the hole. The barrier shudders, and the middle opens completely, a gap big enough for a person to squeeze through.

"Come on." Brick says, holding out his hand but not meeting her gaze. Her shaky hand slips into his and the two step through the broken wood.

Blossom's breath fogs in front of her. The temperature is almost at freezing, and thick darkness surrounds them. She can only just make out her own hand in front of her face. The water is deeper here too, knee deep.

"Look," Brick points to their right. There's a ledge, just barely visible. The two slosh over to it and Brick hoists Blossom up first, climbing up after her. They get to their feet and see that the ledge is actually the floor, and the water borders the left side of the room.

"We're in the cistern itself now, I think." Blossom says quietly, voice just above a whisper. Brick only nods.

"Alright, what the fuck do we do now?" Brick says, a bit agitated. Where were their siblings? There's a loud hiss, and Blossom jumps. Brick eyes narrow.

"You'll never find them," A voice says. Blossom's thoughts flash back to the message written in blood on the floor, and her other hand comes up to grip Brick's wrist.

There's a flash, and suddenly the room is lit with four torches attached to each wall. The light is a sickly yellow, and it elongates the shadows on the walls.

"And no one will ever find _you_ , either." The voice is raspy and sounds like snakes slithering across the floor. Blossom shudders, and Brick is looking around, trying to pinpoint which shadow is the leader.

"What do you want?" Brick scowls. The voice laughs, a horrible mixture between nails on a chalkboard and hissing.

"I want you to _suffer_ ," It says. The shadows converge as one, on the wall opposite Brick and Blossom. The thing is two heads taller than Brick and looms over them, smiling widely. It's teeth are dripping blood and Blossom has to fight to stay standing.

Why does she feel so dizzy? It's like every time a shadow is near her it's sucking out all her energy.

"Ah, my dear." The shadow says, smiling and crossing the floor to take shape a few feet in front of Blossom. Brick tenses.

"You are so weak..." It hisses. "You wonder why...you have a sixth sense, dearie, and you are closer to the paranormal than you realize." Her eyes widen and her heart skips a beat.

"Y-you're lying." She stutters. The shadow laughs again, and circles the two, making Blossom's hair swish as it flies by her.

"No, dearie, though you wish I was." It responds. "And you," It stops in front of Brick. "So much anger...so much _potential_. In the both of you. But alas, such is wasted on mere mortals."

"Where are the others? What the hell did you do to them?" Brick demands, having enough of this thing toying with them. Blossom's whiter than a sheet.

"Ah, your families, yes?" It laughs. "They were such fun to play with...they cleared out all of the other mortals in the house when I sent out my first shadows...thinking themselves noble. But, I got to them." The shadow grins wickedly again, teeth gleaming red in the light. "Would you like to hear what I did to them?"

"What I'd _like_ is to fucking get them back so we can burn down your goddamned horror house." Brick snarls at it.

"My, my, temper, temper." The shadow 'tsk's. "Wouldn't want anything to happen to the lady, would you?" The shadow reaches out and touches a claw to Blossom's face, tracing her eyebrow and stopping on her temple. She thinks her heart stops.

"D-don't _touch_ me!" Blossom shrieks, jerking away from the shadow. It laughs again.

 _What is it with this fucker and_ laughing _?_ Brick thinks.

"Where are my sisters? Where are Brick's brothers?" Blossom asks, mustering up a glare.

"Ah ah ah, don't test me, dearie. I can make things very...unpleasant, for you." It says threateningly.

Brick and Blossom are silent.

"Why are you doing this?" Blossom whispers. The shadow stops, obviously hearing her.

"Why, dearie? _Why?_ " It rushes closer, getting in her face. "I do what I want, when I want, because I  
want to. And right now, I want you to _SUFFER!_ " It screams the last word and retreats backwards, arms in the air. "I think this will help speed things along," It says, it's smile sickeningly sweet. For a moment, there's nothing, and then, four dark rectangles form on the wall.

"Brick...I have a bad feeling about this." Blossom tugs on his arm and whispers in his ear.

The shadow rectangles on the walls darken, then four people fall half way through the wall. The very four people Brick and Blossom came to get back.

Blossom instinctively wants to rush to her sisters and make sure they're okay - _they're not okay of course they're not but I need to_ help them - but stops.

Something's wrong.

Her sisters and Brick's brothers are hanging from the shadows, but their hands and feet aren't visible.

"They're being held captive." Blossom says, horrified.

"Son of a bitch." Brick curses. He turns to the shadow. "Let them go!"

"Mmm, let me think... _no_." It clicks its claws together and more shadows take form on the walls.

The air feels so heavy, so _sinister_ ; Blossom feels like she can't take a deep breath. She feels like she's choking. She wants to crawl out of her own skin. Her stomach drops to her toes and the shaking in her hands worsens.

"Let the fun begin." The shadow says, going back to stand by their siblings.

The other shadows rush the two.

x

"Get back!"

Blossom and Brick dodge an attack from both sides and end up back to back. He mows a couple down with his eyes while she fires off round after round of bolts at the shadows rushing at them from all fronts.

Once in a while, their eyes stray to their siblings, hanging limply from the wall. What _happened_ to them?

But they're tired. They've been fighting this for hours now, and even superbeings have a limit. Blossom's leg and cuts are killing her, and she's only gaining more per second. They can't keep this up much longer, and if they fall, what happens after that?

"I'm going to try and get them free," She murmurs to brick, freezing one of the shadow beings and then kicking it. It shatters into a million pieces and her breath solidifies before them.

Brick swears. Loudly. And with some new, creative ones she's never heard before thrown in. "Blossom, if you think I'm letting you go near that fucker again, you must've sustained some cognitive brain damage during your younger years."

She shakes off a phantom limb and frowns. "There isn't any other way. We _need_ them, I can't...my leg. And you're not doing too well yourself either."

They've never dealt with this before. How do they deal with this? She feels like she's going to vomit again, maybe faint. Her mind becomes cloudy and her legs start to give out on her.

Brick catches her before she collapses into the water. "Shit— _Blossom!_ "

He pushes her away as the shadows start to devour him whole. Brick struggles, but it's pointless. Blossom comes back around and reaches for him, but he grits his teeth.

"Get _out_ of here, Blossom!" She recoils at his tone, the fire burning in his eyes and the _things_ beginning to suffocate him. She thinks, _they're all going to die_.

Blossom scrambles to her feet and over to the wall where their siblings are being held. Butch is the closest, so she grabs onto his shoulders and tries to forcibly pull him out. Her entire body is trembling and it doesn't even seem like Butch is even _alive_ , but she's still trying.

And then—

Her eyes get impossibly wide and her pupils are almost nothing against her empty bubblegum irises. She stops struggling, and freezes. Her expression is pure terror.

Brick pulls against the things attacking him and snarls at the thing standing just a few feet from her, its smile awful.

"What the hell are you doing to her?!" It turns to him, and grins.

"I'm sharing your siblings' memories with her."

x

Boomer crashes through the hallway, cell phone in his hand and eyes wild. "I called Brick, but the line got cut off. Did you get everyone out?"

Butch and Buttercup nod at him, both sharing the same grim expression. "Fucking kids, man. Summoning demons and shit. Haven't they ever seen a horror movie?"

Butch kicks the wall, and Buttercup shivers suddenly. "We need to get the hell out of here. I wasn't able to get a hold of Blossom. Who knows what she's doing."

Bubbles comes floating down the hallway, rubbing her arms, teeth chattering. "I-is it just me, or has it suddenly gotten colder in here?"

Before any of them can reply, something dark and massive shoots out from around her and she disappears, her scream still echoing through the old house. Boomer and Buttercup are both alert in an instant.

"BUBBLES!"

Butch pushes Buttercup back as whatever the hell it is resurfaces and slithers toward Boomer. "Move!" His blond brother turns a second too late, and he's dragged into the black hole. Buttercup is frantic.

"Butch!"

He grinds his teeth and pulls her behind him as he flies down the hallway, not touching anything but the air. The thing keeps leaping off of walls and up from the floors, so maybe if they don't _touch_ them—

Butch almost slams into the wall when one of the nasty little fuckers pops up right in front of them. He blasts it away, and Buttercup battles the ones coming from behind, but it's not enough. She slips her hand into his, because they're getting ready to make a break for it, but something tangles around her ankle and starts to drag her away. She doesn't move at first, but then more join the first, and suddenly she's being pulled away from him.

"BUTTERCUP!"

Her hand is slipping out of his, and they make eye contact for a second too short. Then she's ripped from his grasp.

He's angry, so angry, especially when she disappears, fighting.

Something gets him from behind, and everything goes black.

x

"You can hurt me all you want," Boomer spits some blood from his mouth. "It's not like I haven't felt it before."

 _You can't touch me,_ he wants to scream. _N_ _ot after everything I've already been through.  
_  
The dark thing with the horriblebloodyterrifying smile laughs. It echoes off the walls and pierces his soul.

"But what would you do if I did the same thing to the girl?" It wonders aloud. "Would you suffer? Would it kill you to see her be killed? That sounds fun. Let's try it."

Boomer struggles against his bindings and screams.

x

"Does it hurt?" The monstrosity questions. Butch grinds his teeth.

"I'm going to put a hundred holes in her. And the more she struggles, the more bones I'm going to break. There are two hundred and six in the human body, you know? Hers have an especially nice sound when they snap."

Buttercup weakly pulls at her chains, and it grins.

" _Seven_."

x

"Isn't it wonderful?!"

Brick sneers. "You're fucking _sick_."

The awful thing cackles, then leans closer to him. "Do you want to know a secret?"

"No!"

It pulls back and throws its arms up in the air. "Too bad! She's going to die!"

It dances around. "She won't be able to handle it. The stress of the supernatural on her sixth sense is eating away at her. Haven't you noticed? Haven't you? She's been miserable since the two of you first met up! She's already dying! And now with all the painful memories she's just gained from both of your siblings, it'll put her over the edge." Pausing, it considers. "Maybe she'll implode. Like, you know, a meltdown. There will be so much suffering!"

"Shut up!"

"She won't be able to handle it! It'll drive her insane!"

"SHUT UP!"

"Have you ever seen someone losing their mind? It's—"

"I SAID SHUT THE FUCK UP."

Brick heaves, and it watches him carefully. "You're going to be the best one yet," It decides. "So much anger. How will you react when she dies, I wonder?"

Blossom lets go of Butch and falls back. Her chest is heaving, and her eyes are still wide. That's when she starts screaming. It's a terrible sound that echoes off the walls and cuts through a person's soul. The dark being revels in it.

But.

It's too busy laughing to notice the ice beginning to creep over the cavern. It's solidifying everything in its wake, and the temperature begins to drop steadily. Blossom is holding her head and screaming louder, and the permafrost is still overtaking the place.

That's when it notices, and all rejoicing stops at once.

"What is this? What—this isn't supposed to happen! It's almost midnight—make her stop!" Some of the shadows rush over to quiet her, but when they step within five feet, they're frozen solid.

"Somebody, make it stop! Make her stop!" The ice begins to creep up its form, and it can't get away. It's still screaming when it becomes a permanent ice sculpture, expressionless face frozen in horror. There's a sharp crack, and suddenly Blossom stops screaming. The ice stops, too.

Brick finally breaks away from the frozen shadows and slides over to her. "Blossom? Hey!"

After a moment, she wearily opens her eyes.

And fires past him at the frozen shadow being. It shatters everywhere, and she smiles in relief.

"Midnight."

x

It's completely silent for about five seconds. Then -

"Holy fucking shit." Blossom doesn't have the energy to scold him. She doesn't have any energy, period. They're silent except for heavy breathing.

"I hate to say this red, but we're not out of this yet. We still gotta get out of this hellhole." Brick mutters. "Can you stand?"

"I don't know." She answers honestly. She doesn't know the extent of their injuries. She's not sure she _wants_ to know.

"Well, come on, let's wake them up so we can get the hell out." Her hand on his wrist stops him from approaching his brothers.

"Brick..." She slowly meets his eyes. "Just...be easy with them, alright? They..." She shudders, and he didn't think it possible, but she pales even more. "They went through some...some really bad stuff." He nods once, and her hand slips from around his, falling back in her lap. She watches as he walks over to his brothers first. Blossom gets on her hands and knees and crawls slowly over to her sisters, muscles burning with that simple task. She stops in front of them. They're lying on the ground in front of the wall. Their shadow prisons had been frozen as well, releasing them instantly.

Brick kneels next to Boomer first.

His youngest brother is bloodied, scraped, burned, bruised, and god knows what else. They all are. Brick taps his fingers against Boomer's cheek.

"Hey." He says quietly. It's the gentlest tone Blossom has ever heard him use, and she watches him with wide eyes. "Boom. C'mon man, you gotta get up." He's lightly slapping Boomer's cheek, now. "We're gonna get out of this fucking place, but I need you to get up first. Boomer?"

Said blonde lets out a long, low groan. Blossom smiles. He's alive.

"B...rick?" Boomer manages to get out. His eyes squint open, and a small, almost unnoticeable smile forms on his oldest brother's face.

"Hey Boom."

"Bubbles..." Boomer groans again. "Where's Bubbles?" He starts struggling to get up, and Brick restrains him, laying him back down.

"Hey, calm down. She's fine, she's with Blossom over there. How do you feel? Can you stand up?" Boomer nods slowly, taking in his surroundings. He opens his mouth to ask, but Brick holds up a hand.

"I'll explain later. First, we gotta wake up Butch." Boomer falls back on the ground with an 'ugh'. Brick rolls his eyes, but moves onto his black-haired brother. He leans over Butch's face.

"Butch." He says. "Butch, wake up man. We're getting out of this shitty dump." Butch's eyebrow twitches, but otherwise, he doesn't move. Brick sighs, telling himself that he has to go easy, or else Blossom will have his head. He does what he did to Boomer, lightly slapping Butch's cheek. No response.

"Butch." Brick deadpans. "Wake the fuck up." Butch lets out a strangled noise in the back of his throat and his eyes open wide. He lurches upwards, and his forehead collides directly with Brick's nose.

"Aw, _fuck!_ " Brick swears, leaning back and clutching his nose. Boomer snickers from his position on the floor. Brick sends his brother a death glare.

"Brick?" Butch asks, eyes finally coming into focus. "The fuck? What are you doing here?" Brick drops his hands from his face and glares at his brothers.

"Rescuing you, dumbasses. I'm never letting you out of the house on Halloween ever again." Butch looks around.

"What the hell happened here? Where's Boomer?" Boomer raises his hand, still lying on the ground. Butch relaxes, eyes taking in both his brothers' forms, and the still-unconscious ones of Buttercup and Bubbles.

Speaking of which, Blossom is still trying to wake her sisters, and has been for the past two minutes.

Nothing is working.

"Girls," she says hoarsely. "Girls, get up. It's time to leave." She presses her forehead against Bubbles'.

She's close to tears.

"Bubbly." She almost sobs. "Come on, we have to go." Still nothing. She cradles her sisters' heads in her lap, her own bowed over them. "I'm so sorry, I never should have let you come alone. I should've come _with_ you, I should've _been_ here. I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry." Her hair curtains her face, and she squeezes her eyes shut, tears escaping. "Wake _up_." She cries. "Please. I saw what that - that monster did to you, but you have to _wake up_. You have to." Her voice drops to a broken whisper.

" _Don't leave me_."

After a moment of silence, Blossom palms away her tears and sniffs. She tucks a strand of Buttercup's hair behind her ear, and wipes some dirt off of Bubbles' cheek.

"Come on, Buttercup." A watery smile forms on her face. "Don't give up yet." She draws in an unsteady breath. "What happened to 'toughest fighter', huh? Show us what you're made of. Show us you really are the toughest of them all."

"…Nngh...damn straight I'm the toughest..." Buttercup's voice says. It's gravelly and rough, but she's awake. Her eyes are open and looking up at Blossom. Blossom's eyes pool and she lets out a half-laugh-half-sob.

"Bubbles, you too." She looks at her blonde sister. "Don't leave us hanging. Don't give up." After a moment, her youngest sister's eyes flutter open, and her lips quirk up into a smile.

"Never." She whispers. Blossom helps the girls each sit up, and they know not to question her just yet, by the look on her face.

"Let's get the fuck out of this place." Brick says. Boomer drags himself into a sitting position and rises to his feet. He shakes his head once he's upright, and walks over to Bubbles. She takes his hand with a smile and he lifts her up as gently as possible. Butch heaves himself upwards and walks over to Buttercup, stumbling a bit at first. He holds out a hand and Buttercup takes it, using him as leverage to pick herself up. Brick says nothing, but he walks over to Blossom and scoops her up without a word. She wobbles on her feet, but manages to pull enough resolve from somewhere deep down to remain standing.

"How do we get out?" Boomer questions. Blossom grimaces.

"We have to go through the cistern drainage tunnel and up an old well that leads to the kitchen." Brick answers before she can. "Come on, this way." He steps down into the water again, and Blossom follows after them. Butch and Buttercup are next, and the blondes bring up the rear. No one complains about the freezing water temperature. Before they leave, however, Brick turns back and blasts every single one of those shadow- _assholes_ into miniscule shards of ice.

Brick leads the way through the broken wood barrier, and once they're all in the drainage tunnel, he intertwines his fingers with Blossom's. Bubbles' right arm is looped with Boomer's left, and Butch and Buttercup brush shoulders as they walk.

"Do you still have your phone?" Blossom murmurs. Brick nods, he picked it up after Blossom froze everything.

"It's a little after midnight." He tells her. The walk is silent save for the water swishing around their feet. They finally reach the end of the tunnel, and Brick lifts Blossom up onto the ladder, pulling himself up after her. Buttercup goes next, then Butch, and after him, Bubbles and Boomer. The ladder seems shorter than Blossom remembers, but then again, her mind is scrambled and her vision going hazy around the edges at this point.

She's so _tired_.

She doesn't remember it's blocked until they reach the top and her hand collides with the floorboards. She turns it to ice with her breath and Brick blasts it, and sparkling ice dust rains down on the teens.  
Blossom tries not to show it, but being back in the house scares her. She's skittish as they walk through, jumping at every shadow, holding her breath around every turn. Her eyes flick around wildly, always looking for danger. She hasn't stopped shaking yet.

The front doors are still bolted shut, but Butch solves that with one well-placed kick. Brick and Blossom are the last ones out, making sure they're siblings are safe. However, once they're a good hundred feet away from the front porch, Blossom collapses on the ground. The others don't notice at first, being in front of them, but Brick falls to his knees beside the redhead.

"Shit - Blossom!" He says. She's curled in on herself, arms hugging her ripped sleeves, and her head is bowed. Her shoulders - hell, her entire _body_ is shaking violently. A loud sob escapes her and Brick notices the tears streaming down her face.

The other four turn back, and seeing both their leaders on the ground, rush back. Blossom is leaning into Brick, and he wraps his arms around her, bringing her closer.

"It's over." He says into her hair. "We killed that motherfucker." She laughs weakly through her tears, and nods, burying her face in his shoulder and fisting her hands in his hoodie. She's crying of pure _relief_ , relief that they're alive, that their siblings are safe, and that _thing_ is gone. Forever.

Her nerves are completely and utterly _shot_ , and she never, ever loses her composure like this, but she couldn't care less about appearances at the moment. Right now, she just wants Brick to hold her as she cries.

Their siblings are in front of them, and Bubbles is silently crying just _watching_ her older sister lose it. Buttercup will never admit it, but her eyes are wet too. Butch and Boomer are speechless.

For another minute, no one speaks. Blossom's uncontrollable sobbing calms until no more tears escape. Brick holds her the entire time. When she's calm again, she looks up at the others, and by the light of the full moon, they see just how injured Brick and Blossom really are.

Brick's hoodie sleeves are missing, and his jeans are torn in multiple places and wet from the knee down. There are burns, claw marks, and blood smears all over his clothes. His face and arms are scratched as well, and his cap is crooked on his head. His shoes are untied, dirty, and sopping wet.

Blossom looks worse. Her hair is a wild mess, her hair tie missing. There are deep scratches on her cheek, and her face is smeared with blood, dirt, and tears. Angry red and purple markings circle her neck. Her sweater sleeve is ripped with deep claw marks on her arm, and the bottom half of her sweater is torn off. Her skirt and sweater are smudged with blood and dirt, and her tights are ripped in many places. The most prominent injury is the four deep claw marks on her right thigh. The marks look deeper than the ones on her arm, and they're bleeding profusely. Her tights are wet from the knee down, and her boots are scuffed. Both her and Brick also have smaller injuries: minor bruises and scrapes along their arms and legs.

"What the fuck _happened_ , bro." Butch says to Brick. He's still kneeling on the ground, slouched, and Blossom is slumped against him, eyes half-lidded. The two of them look _dead_.

Brick still manages (somehow) to send a glare to his brother. It's weak, but at least he tries.

"You guys went to a Halloween party, the mansion was haunted, Blossom was kidnapped and fell through a wall, I was possessed by Casper the Unfriendly Ghost, Blossom almost died twice, I almost got mauled by shadows, y'know. The fucking usual when dealing with the paranormal." And Blossom starts to cry again, but she's smiling weakly. Brick squeezes her, his arm around her shoulders.

"I hate ghosts." She says, her voice wavering.

"I fucking hate Halloween." Brick grouses.

x

Buttercup lifts her arm and inspects her torn costume. "How the hell are we gonna explain this to the Professor?" All three girls pale, and by this point Blossom doesn't even look alive.

"...We don't." The commander and leader squints at them. "But you two are never ever going to a Halloween party again. Ever. That was awful. We almost died. I fell through a _wall_. Brick was _possessed_ , and I kissed him and—"

She pauses. Everything is deathly silent. Then—

"YOU DID WHAT NOW?"

Blossom holds up her hands in defense or surrender (she hasn't decided which quite yet) at the shell-shocked Buttercup and Boomer, giddy-looking Bubbles, and...is Butch...is he _smirking_ at her?

"It was to snap him out of being used by a ghost! Calling him a stupid Rowdyruff wouldn't work—"

"Oooh," Butch and Boomer marvel.

"—Andandand," Suddenly, she rounds on Brick. "That thing," She says with some spite, "When it was possessing you, it told me that you care about me."

Dammit. He was hoping she'd forgotten.

Blossom stares up at him with narrowed eyes. "Is it true then?"

 _Is she dense in the head? Perhaps that thing I said about serious cognitive brain damage is true.  
_  
"You haven't noticed?" He asks, in that same quiet tone from when he was trying to rouse Boomer. Blossom recalls all the things he's done tonight, the way he wouldn't look at her after almost strangling her, the way he was calling out her name when she was being held in the wall. The way his hand slipped from her throat up to brush her injured cheek when she kissed him, how he kissed her back.

"Oh," She says simply, stomach rising to her throat. Or maybe those are butterflies. She can't tell anymore.

"And she kissed him," Butch points out, gesturing into the empty air. "So we all know what that means."

Blossom's cheeks burn. "It was to save him!"

"You could'a just started singing 'Tainted Love' really loudly, he hates that. Or annoyed him out of it."

She frowns. "And how was I supposed to know that?" Butch grins.

Brick takes her hand and helps her up, and Buttercup stretches. "Well, I for one want to go home and take a shower. Then sleep for a week."

Boomer raises his hand. "I call first dibs on the shower back home!"

Brick and Butch groan, but the latter is quick to recover. "Maybe I'll just share with BC, then."

" _No._ " Buttercup and Blossom say at the same time.

Bubbles smiles and takes Boomer's offered arm as they head back to the Utonium household. They all walk in amiable and exhausted silence until Butch starts to sing.

"Sometimes I feel, I've got to, run away. I've got to, get away from the pain you drive into me—"

"Shut _up_ , Butch."

x

EXTRA

From then on, every Halloween, the boys invade the girls' house and the six super powered teens just have a movie marathon.

(But absolutely _NO_ scary movies. At all.)

x

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.

 **FIRST STORY DOWN WOO.**

 **this was a hella long oneshot sorry (not really hAHA) anyway,** **hope you enjoyed this! leave a review with some feedback! also, go read chokecherries' stories. they're great.**

 **peace out girl scouts,**

 **two red converse**


	2. haunted summer camp

**disclaimer: HA, YOU THOUGHT.  
dedication: um, same as last time. TO HALLOWEEN WHICH IS TOMORROW I'M SO EXCITED.  
note: this was actually inspired by a reallysuperabsolutely terrifying nightmare I had a few months ago. I hope this screws with all of your heads as much as it did with mine.  
note2: again, chokecherries and I take no responsibility for any conditions (i.e. nightmares, tears, broken hearts, etc.) that are results of reading these stories. ;)  
playlist: creepy horror music.**

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.

Buttercup drags herself to the door while simultaneously struggling to pull on her jacket. Her right arm is halfway in the left sleeve and there's an entire Snickers bar—snatched from the bowl on the hall table—hanging out of her mouth when she flings the cherry red slab of wood open.

"Osh heh Boomah," She says around a mouthful of candy bar. Then she notices the two standing behind him.

Swallowing, the middle Utonium sister raises a brow. "Stragglers," She greets. "What the hell're you two doing here?"

Butch is busy staring at her one sock and one sneaker-clad foot and Brick is staring at her in disdain. Boomer smiles his pretty boy smile and waves his fingers. "They uh, didn't have anything better to do?"

There's an awkward moment of silence as Buttercup brings the snickers bar back up to her mouth and slowly but surely takes another huge bite. Butch looks jealous, Brick's left eye is twitching, and Boomer is ready to collapse from all the uncomfortable tension. It's broken by the sound of light footsteps coming down the hall, and then Blossom appears, dressed in a pretty pale pink skirt and cream-colored blouse. All the ruffles on the front stick out even more when she slips on a matching pink sweater.

"Buttercup, have you been into the candy again? Don't you know that's for the—" She notices the boys (specifically Brick) staring at her, and her scolding tone softens to an almost whisper, "—kids."

Butch grins at her and holds out his hand. "Trick or treat Blossom. Gimme."

She wrinkles her nose at him. "I said the kids Butch. Not you. What on earth are you supposed to be, anyway?"

"Myself."

Buttercup snorts. "That's the most frightening thing I can think of." She reaches into the pocket of her jacket and drops some fun-sized candy bars into his open palm. "Here you go, you little shit. Happy Halloween. Now get off my front porch."

Bubbles pops up from behind her sisters and frowns in disapproval. "That's not very nice, Buttercup."

She floats over and kisses Boomer on the cheek. "Hi. Thanks for coming with us."

"We haven't even left yet." Buttercup deadpans.

Her blonde sister flips her pigtails and smiles. "Well we could if you'd actually get dressed." Buttercup replies with a drawn-out groan and flings her jacket around, narrowly missing Blossom's head. The redhead frantically ducks and shoots her sister an annoyed look which is promptly ignored in favor of searching for her missing sneaker.

"HAS ANYBODY SEEN MY LEFT SHOE?"

"IT'S IN THE HALL CLOSET!" The Professor's voice floats up from the basement.

Buttercup nods to herself and pulls it out. "THANKS PROFESSOR."

"NO PROBLEM SWEETHEART. REMEMBER TO BE CAREFUL. I LOVE YOU GIRLS."

Blossom pulls Buttercup out the door and smiles over her shoulder. "We will, Professor! We love you!"

Brick shoves his hands deep into his jean pockets as they make their way out of town. "Where are we going?"

His redheaded counterpart glances over at him. "We received a call over the hotline earlier from a woman who runs a summer camp. She mentioned something about several peculiar occurrences that have happened recently."

Buttercup dodges a Milky Way that Butch threw at her. "She sounded pretty damn frantic from what I heard. I thought she was gonna lose it."

Butch, who's been strangely silent up until this point, decides to speak up. "I bet you twenty bucks it's haunted."

Brick and Blossom both send him a look. Buttercup rolls her eyes. "That's ridiculous. Ghosts aren't real, you moron. And even if they were, what poltergeist would want to haunt a frickin summer camp? Of all things."

"I don't like scary things," Bubbles mumbles.

Brick rolls his eyes so hard he almost scores a strike. "It's not fucking haunted."

x

"You were saying."

Buttercup's hands are tucked up under her arm pits and Bubbles is huddled close to Boomer. The scene before them is like something out of one of those old black and white horror movies. There's dark fog rolling over the deep green lake, the trees are tall and bare, and the entire place appears to be deserted.

Boomer flails a hand at the broken sign that reads 'Camp Kakohana'. One side of the chain is broken, so the thing makes an eerie creaking sound in the wind. "See, this is why I never wanted to go to summer camp."

Butch trips over something sticking out of the ground and almost falls flat on his face. "Dude, I didn't even _know_ we had a summer camp near Townsville."

"Um, guys," Bubbles says shakily. She points to the ground near Butch's feet. "Is that what I think it is?"

A flashlight.

There's a cracked radio lying next to it, and Brick leans down to pick it up. Meanwhile Blossom rubs her arms and lets out a deep breath. She almost freezes Butch's hand in the process. He pulls it back as soon as the frost touches his fingertips.

"Yo, Blossom. I like my hand how it is, thanks."

Her teeth chatter. "S-Sorry I'm just...really cold all of a sudden."

He blinks at the frozen branch near his head. "Well you might wanna get that under control soon." Then he turns to Buttercup. "You feel that Sunshine? It feels like all my happiness just died."

Boomer coughs under his breath. "Not like you had much to begin with."

"I can hear you, bastard."

Bubbles wraps her arms around herself in a similar way to Blossom. "I don't like this guys."

Her oldest sister rubs her hands together. "Okay, so we're going to split up. Honestly, I think this is just a prank, but we still have to search. Buttercup and Butch, you take the forest; Bubbles and Boomer, you guys check the dock and waterfront. Brick and I will search the cafeteria and cabins. We'll meet in front of the flagpole in half an hour, okay? Shout if you find anything."

Thunder cracks overhead and the door to the lake boathouse blows open. After a few seconds of silence, Butch crosses his arms.

"Told you. Haunted."

x

"Okay, so. What exactly are we looking for?" Butch asks, kicking a branch as he and Buttercup split up from their siblings. Bubbles and Boomer walk straight ahead, towards the lake, while Buttercup and Butch are off to the left. Blossom and Brick go right, where the cafeteria and cabins are located.

"Anything out of the ordinary I guess. You know, clues." Buttercup shrugs, zipping up her jacket and shoving her hands in the pockets.

Butch is silent for 3.8 seconds. Then –

"Scooby Dooby Doo, where are you, we've got some work to do now –" Buttercup doesn't even blink as she socks him in the arm.

"Owww! Christ, what was that for?!" He whines, gripping the affected area.

"For being an idiot." She replies blandly. Butch pouts but says nothing. The two then take a closer look at their surroundings.

They're surrounded by tall trees with long branches. The trees have nicks and scrapes on the white outer wood; some look to be natural, just bark falling off, others...look like they're eyes or faces twisted in horror.

"Creepy..." Butch mutters, taking in a tree with marks that look like three eyes on top of one another. "What the hell kinda trees are _these_?"

"I think they're birch trees." Buttercup states. "Bubbles was watching something on the nature channel and they were talking about trees like this."

"They look like fucking skeletons with faces." Butch says. Buttercup nods absentmindedly. They really did. The leaves on the trees are sparse, and the ones that are on the branches are dry and brown. The many branches intersected and wound through each other, creating a bony-looking canopy above them.

Buttercup rakes her eyes along the ground as well, looking for anything odd. _Dirt, twigs, dried leaves, more dirt, a gum wrapper, more dried leaves, another twig, little girl's shoe – wait, what?_

"Hold the fuck up." Buttercup blurts, stopping short. Butch is a few steps ahead of her, and he stops, turning to look back.

"Sunshine?" She says nothing, just bends down and carefully picks up the...shoe. It's a little ballet flat with a Velcro strap and a tiny bow on it. It's filthy and caked with mud and leaves.

"Whoa." Butch is beside her now, wide-eyed. They share a glance. "This just took a turn." Suddenly, the forest seems even more threatening. Buttercup eyes their surroundings warily.

"...C'mon, let's keep moving." Butch takes a hold of her elbow and leads her away, his grip surprisingly gentle. Buttercup doesn't say anything, but she feels...off. Something's wrong. Usually she can feel the plant life around her, sense the trees and grass and leaves. She doesn't sense anything now, though they're in the middle of the forest.

It feels...blank. Like there's nothing there.

Like everything is dead.

"Butch..." She says quietly. He slows, and his hand starts to slide off her elbow, until she stops him by grabbing his wrist. "I'm not getting anything. I can't sense any of this. This is wrong, it shouldn't be like this."

"What are you on, Butterfly?" He tries to joke, but it falls short. She shakes her head and tugs him closer, almost whispering.

"My special power. I can control plants." His eyes widen. "But, I'm not getting a damn thing from any of this. It's like this whole forest is fucking dead." His eyes widen even more.

"Alright, I _knew_ it. I totally called it. This place _is_ haunted!" He exclaimed, whisper-shouting. Buttercup frowns deeply, looking at the child's shoe in her hand.

"I don't like this. Maybe we shouldn't have split up from the others." Butch takes a hold of her hand, leaping in for some damage control (since when is this his job? Usually he's the one to _cause_ the damage).

"Hey hey, don't chicken out on me now, Butterbutt. Blossom wanted us to meet at the flag pole in half an hour right? So, we look a little longer, see if we can find anything else, then we head back and meet up with the others. No big deal, easy peasy. Right?" She nods slowly, still not looking one hundred percent convinced. To be honest, Butch wasn't really feeling this whole 'split up' thing either. This so-called 'summer camp' put him on edge.

"...Yeah, alright." Buttercup finally concedes. She pulls out her phone to check the time. "It's almost 10:20 now. We've got like ten minutes." Butch nods and she pockets her phone again. He takes hold of her and again, the two not talking, just carefully observing the forest around them.

After about two minutes, Butch's foot knocks against something on the ground unexpectedly. He swears in surprise. Buttercup bends down to get a closer look. It's the other shoe. Along with a soiled, satin, used-to-be white, hair bow. Buttercup meets Butch's gaze.

"We have to keep looking a little longer. There might be a little girl out here who needs help." She says, her voice steely. Butch nods in agreement.

It's 10:36 and the two are still deep in the forest, searching for a barefooted, possibly injured ( _or worse,_ but they didn't want to think like that) little girl.

It's 10:47 when they find strips of dress fabric hanging from low tree branches.

It's 10:55 when they find the owner of the shoes, bow, and dress tatters.

And it's not at all who they expect.

x

"Buttercup, _GO!_ " Butch shouts, gripping her hand and pushing off the ground. Buttercup flies up next to him, the two leaving faint green trails behind them.

Too bad their pursuer could fly as well.

"Still think ghosts aren't real, Sunshine?" Butch asks. Buttercup scowls at him as they dodge branches and try to out-fly the enemy.

Who just so happens to be a little girl no more than six years old. She looked average enough when they first saw her. Black curly hair, somewhat poufy – if a bit ripped around the hem – dress, crying into her hands.

And then, she looked up. There were a few glaringly obvious things about her that sent off warning signals.

1) She didn't have eyes.

2) She was smiling evilly.

3) _SHE DIDN'T HAVE EYES._

As soon as they comprehend that they had walked right into a trap, they book it. But she could fly as well.

"NOW IS NO TIME FOR YOUR SMARTASS COMMENTS, DICKWEED." Buttercup yells angrily. "WE ACTUALLY MIGHT DIE." Butch glances at her, then back at what's chasing them. His eyes darken in resolve and his grip on her hand tightens even further.

"Not on my watch."

x

"Have I ever told you that I don't like swimming in the lake? I'm all for the beach, okay. The beach is bright and sunny and there's plenty of sand. I don't feel like I'm about to be eaten whole by the thing that came from the frickin lake. I don't want to be dinner for a lake monster, no thanks."

Bubbles pats her boyfriend's arm. "Boomer, you're rambling again."

He sends her a sheepish glance as they step out onto the dock. "Sorry. This place just..."

"Gives you the heebie-jeebies? Yeah."

Boomer cautiously looks around as the old wooden boards creak and moan under their feet. It's so fucking eerie out here.

"Not so sure I like this whole 'let's split up and look for clues' thing. This is not Scooby Doo. We are not here to solve a mystery. I say if it's haunted, we get the hell out as soon as possible."

The youngest Utonium sister edges around a strange substance staining the dock and slips her hand into his. "I don't like it either, but we still need to look around. There could be people here who need our help."

Boomer sighs. "I know. But...I just...there's this feeling and..."

Suddenly, Bubbles straightens and turns white. "Like this place hasn't been an actual camp in years?"

He nods, wondering what's come over her all of a sudden. "Yeah, like that. Exactly." Trembling, Bubbles pulls at the hem of her dress and scoots a little closer to him. The lake is bright under the moonlight, but the thunder clouds are rapidly swallowing up the sky. It's been scarily quiet since they all parted ways shortly before, and it sends a shiver down her spine.

"I...I just remembered something," She mumbles quietly as he stares into the lake water. "When I was reading through old newspapers for that history project—you remember?—I read about this camp that got shutdown after an accident or something. I don't remember the details but...I remember the name. It's this one. At least one person died, and then weird things started to happen, and—"

Her eyes grow wide and she cuts herself off, staring in the direction of the lake. There's something...floating on the water. It's pale but it's there.

Boomer's breath catches. "Is that...?"

Bubbles jumps at the sound of water dripping behind them, and whips around to find the dock wet. She leans over the side of it to peer down at the water. Closer, closer, closer—a white hand reaches out and grabs onto her wrist.

Bubbles pulls back and screams, trying to pull her hand free and stumble back into Boomer. He makes a clumsy grab for her, but the hand from the lake has a much better hold, and she slips right through his fingers.

"BUBBLES!"

The blonde thrashes around as she's dragged into the water. Finally, her head goes under, and her right arm is the only thing visible. Boomer slides over and grabs her hand before trying to pull her back up. He isn't fast enough, and she disappears completely beneath the murky depths.

Holy shit. Fuck. He can't get to her. He can't—he couldn't save her and—and now she's drowning, she's being pulled _under_ and she's going to _die_ —

"Boomer!"

He snaps his head up to look at her voice, and finds Bubbles hiding his face in her hands. She looks worried and relieved at the same time.

"Are you okay? You kind of...spaced out on me there for a second or sixty."

Boomer breathes in, out, in. He pulls her close and buries his face in her hair. "I'm okay. You're okay. You're _okay._ " He repeats.

It was just an illusion. A dream.

A nightmare.

It wasn't real. And he's going to make sure it stays that way.

x

Bubbles peers out across the lake.

"Boomer," She whispers, deathly quiet. "I see someone out there."

x

"Do you think they'll be alright?" Blossom asks worriedly, looking back as her sisters and their counterparts disappear in their assigned directions. Brick grunts noncommittally. Blossom resists the urge to roll her eyes. The two redheads walk down the path towards the cabins and cafeteria.

They're about halfway down the path when they come across the first odd thing: the camp fire pit.

It's set off the side of the path, in a big open area surrounded by birch trees with limbs that look disfigured and twisted. Brushing off the trees' appearances, Blossom ventures over; Brick a silent (but reassuring) presence behind her.

The fire pit is relatively large, with numerous logs for seats encircling it. The pit itself is a circle of stones and lower in the ground. Blossom's eyes rake over the logs and the area around them, but she doesn't see anything out of the ordinary. Except for the atmosphere. It gives her an unsettled feeling, and Blossom begins to shiver. The air feels off. Cold. Dismal.

It's not until she gets close to the fire pit itself does she see why.

There, in front of the stones making up the pit, is something scratched into the packed dirt. A short, fire-blackened stick rests across it, partially covering the black marks. Blossom's heart starts to pound and her stomach drops.

"Brick..." She says, her voice just above a whisper. Instantly, he's at her side, looking over her shoulder. She reaches out her foot and slowly, ever so gently eases the stick away from them with the tip of her sneaker. There's only one word written, and the letters are scratched deep and jagged, as if the person who did it was in a hurry.

 _'HELP'_

"I don't think this a prank." Brick says seriously. Blossom shakes her head. She's beginning to think that too.

"C'mon, we gotta look at the cabins and the cafeteria too." Brick says, turning away. Blossom rips her eyes away from the message with some difficulty, and nods, following him. She can't help but glance back a few times as they walk away, but what she's looking for, she doesn't know. They continue down the path.

It leads to a big area where the five cabins and the cafeteria are located. The cabins are set in a circle, around a fairly large fenced off area in the middle. The cafeteria is off to the left of the cabins. The door is a quarter of the way open from when it banged open before.

The first thing they notice is the cabins. They all appear old, run-down, and the wood looks a bit...green. The porches sag, and the two stairs leading up to them look as if they could break with just the slightest pressure.

The next thing they notice is the smell.

"Shit, what _is_ that?" Brick says, face scrunching up in disgust as the smell hits them head-on. Blossom gags and covers her mouth and nose with her sleeve.

The stench is heavy in the air and sickeningly sweet. Blossom feels like she's going to hurl.

It doesn't help that the atmosphere just got a whole lot creepier, and the temperature dropped a few degrees.

"It...it smells like something's...rotting." Blossom gets out, her face paling at the implication. _If the smell is_ this _bad, what exactly happened? Do we want to find out?_

Brick juts his chin in the direction of the fenced off area, a silent question. Blossom swallows thickly, but nods. They walk forward into the clearing between the circle of cabins. The ground slopes slightly downward, not much, but enough to be noticeable. The smell only gets worse the closer they get.

Finally, they reach the fence. It surrounds a huge, gaping hole in the ground.

"It looks like a sinkhole." Blossom comments. Brick leans slightly over the fence, and his eyes land on something that makes his whole body tense. His face tightens.

"This is no normal sinkhole, red." He doesn't look at her, instead focusing on the inside of the sinkhole. Blossom cautiously steps up next to him, holding onto the fence tightly. She copies him, leaning forward a bit and looking below, into the sinkhole.

She immediately lets out a small, strangled noise and stumbles back, eyes impossibly wide.

"Brick...that's not...that's not what I think it is, right?" She asks frantically. "Please tell me that's not what I think it is."

Brick says nothing, but they both know the answer. They should've guessed from the smell alone.

It shouldn't be here. It shouldn't exist _here_ , in a _summer camp_ , of all places. Hell, it shouldn't exist _at all_. Because the sinkhole in front of them is no ordinary sinkhole, as Brick pointed out.

It's a sinkhole filled with curdling blood.

"Oh god...it's blood, isn't it? Real, actual blood?" Brick nods, his mouth set in a thin line. Forget throwing up, Blossom is about to pass out.

"This is one fucked up summer camp." Brick states. Blossom puts her face in her hands, and inhales deeply, trying to slow her heartbeat while ignoring the smell ( _it's the smell of_ curdling blood _ohmygod it's actual blood what is it doing here it can't be here this can't be real she can't do this - STOP IT BLOSSOM. Breathe. In, out. In, out. In, out. Think. What do you need to do now?_ ). She looks up.

"We need to check the cabins." She says. "Someone could be trapped inside." Brick steps away from the sinkhole and follows as she walks over to cabin 5, the one on the far right, the farthest away from the cafeteria.

She rests her weight on the first stair gingerly, testing to see if the wood will hold her. It does. The steps creak she goes up, and Brick just skips them all together, giving them a skeptical glance.

Blossom slowly pushes the screen door open, eyes darting around to take in the inside of the cabin.

Four bunk beds are pushed against the walls, two to a wall. The mattresses are faded and cracked, and some having stuffing squeezing out. Cobwebs hang from the ceiling and spiders seem to be the only inhabitants. Nothing else is in the cabin.

The other cabins are exactly the same, the atmosphere in each one making the hair on their arms stand on end. Blossom notices she gets goosebumps in cabin 2, and her hands start to shake ever so slightly in cabin 1. The closer they get to the cafeteria, the colder and more unnerving the cabins' vibes become.

Finally, they're outside the cafeteria. It's pitch-black inside, and the windows are all either cracked beyond repair or broken through completely.

Brick goes first (no he is not doing it because he's worried about Blossom dammit, he's doing it so they can get it fucking over with already - _it's not for Blossom what are you talking about_ ) and Blossom hovers at his shoulder.

He opens the door with his foot, and surprisingly, it doesn't creak. Even though thunderclouds are getting closer, the full moon ( _why is the moon_ always _full on Halloween? Why?_ ) does give some light.

They step through the doorway and Blossom fumbles around for a light switch. When she finds it, she flicks it on. The fluorescent lights overhead turn on, but they flicker occasionally and the light is more yellow than it should be.

The cafeteria is a total mess.

There are a bunch of sleeping bags strewn around, some ripped completely in half. The cafeteria tables are pushed against the wall, but they're all broken or dented in some way. Backpacks and duffel bags are in the room as well, and the belongings that had been inside them are littered across the floor. There were obvious signs of a large fight, but with _what?_

Blossom and Brick walked around, stepping over all of the debris. Some knives from the kitchen are sticking out of the wall, and Brick pulls them out and hands one to Blossom. When she looks at him questioningly, he just shrugs.

"You never know." She takes the knife, though her hands (and the rest of her) are shaking too much to do much good with it. She's so _cold_. She has a bad feeling about this place.

"Why would the lady in charge even have people here if she knew the damn place was haunted?" Brick mutters. Blossom glances at him and tries to control her shivering (it doesn't work).

"She said something over the phone about the mysterious happenings and such stopping for a while, so she thought they were done. She invited teens to the camp for an overnight thing, I think. But then on the phone, she said that she had been wrong, they hadn't stopped after all. The kids she had here just...disappeared, apparently." Her teeth are starting to chatter. Brick scowls.

"Tch, that's fucking great. Now we have to play rescue duty too?" Blossom shushes him, examining some claw marks on the wall warily. Brick ventures into the kitchen. It's in as much disarray as the outside cafeteria. The fridge doors are hanging from their hinges and all of the cabinets and drawers are open, their insides dumped on the floor. The kitchen tap is dripping and food is splattered on the counters, walls, and floor.

"Brick?" Blossom calls softly, peering over the counter into the kitchen. "Did you find anything?" Brick looks back at her.

"Look at this." He points to the wall, where something is drawn on it.

It's a smiley face, but the eyes are x's and the substance used to draw it is dripping down the wall, making the face look eerie and bone-chilling. Blossom's eyes widen and a chill runs down her spine.

"More blood?" She chokes out. Brick nods grimly.

"This ghost is fucking screwed up in the head." Blossom doesn't refute him.

"We need to find these missing people. I have a feeling that the owner went missing not long after she called us." Blossom bites her lip. "I hope the others are okay. Do you have the time? I left my phone at home."

"Do you ever bring your phone with you?" Brick rolls his eyes. Blossom gives him a half-hearted glare. He pulls out his phone.

"It's 10:19. We have ten minutes." Blossom nods and he puts the phone away. She surveys the kitchen again.

And notices something strange.

"Um, Brick?" She says quietly, fear creeping into her voice. He glances at her, taking in the change of her tone. She sounds scared. Looks like it, too.

"Is that...is that smoke?" She points behind him, and her grip on the knife tightens. Brick turns his head, and sees what she's pointing at.

White mist is floating along the floor. It's coming from behind some boxes stacked against the wall. Blossom rounds the counter as Brick walks closer to the boxes.

"Brick, careful," Blossom warns. The smoke doesn't seem to hurt him, but it's cold. The temperature is steadily dropping.

Blossom has a sick feeling, and her gut is twisting with worry and anxiousness. She doesn't know what's going on, but she can sense...danger. This whole thing screams _wrong_. Her skin is crawling and her fingers are starting to go numb.

Brick moves the boxes easily, and the source of the mist is revealed. It's coming from underneath the wall. Blossom steps closer.

"Is it a hidden door?" She thinks out loud. Brick starts feeling around for any creases or gaps or uneven panels, but he comes up empty handed. Blossom comes up next to him and puts a hand on his arm to keep him from punching straight through the wall.

"Hold on a second..." She murmurs. Taking the knife, she taps it against the wall, on the wood off to her right. Solid. Still tapping, she moves the knife sideways to the left. As she taps on the wood in front of her, the sound changes. Hollow.

She gives a small, knowing smile.

"Gotch'a." Then, she grips the handle and rams the knife into the wall. It slides clean through, as if the wood was butter. Brick looks at her, his eyes a little wider than normal (but not _too_ wide, this is Brick we're talking about).

Blossom leans to her right, tilting the knife. Wood pops and cracks, and a seam appears in the wall. She leans more, and the hollow-sounding wood starts to separate from the solid. Brick puts his hands on the raised wood and pulls back. The wood slides over, and a doorway is uncovered. The two look inside.

It's pitch black inside except for the smoke pooling around their feet. The ominous feeling creeps back up onto Blossom again, and she holds on to the knife as if her life depends on it. It might, for all she knows.

A small flame takes form in Brick's hand, shedding light into the dark room. It's empty, and big. In the middle of the room, on the floor, is a large square hole. The smoke is coming up from the hole, curling around their shoes and leaking out into the cafeteria.

Blossom and Brick share a look and cautiously step inside the room.

x

"Why the fuck would a camp cafeteria have a hidden panel." Brick deadpans, and Blossom whacks his arm.

"Language!" She hisses.

The knife narrowly misses him and he leans back, a bewildered and annoyed look on his face. "Watch where you swing that thing, babe. I like my head where it is."

Blossom temporarily ignores the goosebumps on her arms and the building scream in her throat in favor of frowning upon her counterpart. "Oh, that ego-inflated head of yours. Yes, sorry. I will _absolutely_ —"

Her eyes go wide as her foot slips backward, and her center of gravity shifts. Blossom's breath catches in her throat and strangles her scream and she falls down, down, down into the hole—hair flying around her and Brick calling her name from above. She hits the ground eventually, even though it felt like she'd been falling forever, and it makes her sick to her stomach. Everything hurts. It's dark and it smells _awful_ and there's something sticky and warm dripping down her temple and it stains her hand when she reaches up to check.

She blacks out.

x

Buttercup doesn't like not being able to feel anyone around her. At least—and she wants to gag for even thinking this, but—at least Butch is with her. She's not sure if she could handle being out alone in this fucking camp without another living thing. The entire place feels like death—literally—and Buttercup vows that if she ever has kids, she's never sending them to summer camp. Ever.

So they'd lost the crazy little eyeless girl for now, and are steadily but stealthily making their way back to the flagpole. Or at least trying to find their siblings. They need to know what's out there, what exactly they're up against.

The forest is eerily silent, and she's had just about enough of this shit. Also she keeps feeling this strange, unexplainable sense of déjà vu. Which is weird. And she feels the need to stay close to Butch. Which is gross. Maybe it's just because she's so used to feeling the life from the world around her, and now that it's oddly absent, Butch is the only thing besides herself exuding that aura.

It's almost like she needs him to be there, to feel him against her skin and his breath against her neck, in her ear. Of course because that sounds disgustingly like something else _entirely_ , it leads to other thoughts.

She wonders how good of a kisser Butch is, because she's heard rumors before _okay_. Then she wants to slap herself because _how fucking stupid is she_. But she can't get the image out of her mind. Maybe she needs to burn her eyes out. Or her brain, technically, since she's never actually _witnessed_ herself kissing Butch.

Suddenly, a hand slaps over her mouth to drown out her startled exclamation. Butch's breath is harsh against her neck, and she feels her entire body betray her and go warm.

"It's here."

She's pressed up against him, and oh, isn't this the classic horror trope. She wants to vomit, but she's strangely satisfied at the same time. This fucking camp is messing with her head. They're hiding from a psycho ghost child who's trying to kill them, and all she can think about is what Butch's kiss would taste like. Forget throwing up, she needs to hit something. Preferably soon.

Butch releases her when the danger has passed (does it ever really go away?) and she turns to give him a piece of her mind.

But.

That is not what happens.

Something cold and gross latches onto her ankle, and immediately it feels like the life is being sucked from her.

"ASSHOLE," She shouts as she's pulled to the ground.

Body-slamming the dirt is not a fun thing. 0/10 would recommend. Butch scrambles forward to reach for her, but she's already being dragged off into the woods.

"FUCKING KIDS DAMN CURSED CAMP WHAT THE HELL IS THIS SHIT." Buttercup screams as she scratches the ground, trying to get a hold on _anything_.

"BUTTERCUP!"

"OVER HERE, YOU DICK. GET ME OUT OF THIS CRAZY CHILD'S HOLD." The terror is wrapping around her heart, squeezing tighter and tighter. She can't see Butch anymore, she can't—

Fear raises it needle-like claws to strike and, one, two, three. Butch stops in his tracks at her scream. Then it's quiet.

No screaming, no struggling, nothing.

Like she isn't even here anymore.

He clenches his fists and punches a nearby tree. It cracks in half. "Fuck."

"BUTTERCUP!"

x

Brick mutters curse after curse as he descends the rickety ladder into the murky darkness. _Fucking weird mist, damn haunted summer camp, stupid clumsy Blossom._ He lowers himself to the ground and grunts when his sneakers hit the dirt. _Who the hell has a secret passageway in the cafeteria? What is this?_

"Blossom, where the hell are you?"

He squints in the darkness, looking for any sign of the redhead. Not a thing.

"Dammit." He groans, and gives himself a light. When can finally see, he almost wishes he couldn't.

Blossom is there, staring at him, but her eyes are blank. There's no indication that she even registers his presence. Her pretty and pristine clothes are dirty and torn, and her head is lolled sideways. Her knees are bent and look like they're about to give out, and her arms hang limply at her sides. Blood is dripping down the left side of her face, staining her clothes and hands, and the ground around them.

"Blossom," He breathes. At the sound of his voice, she rights her head, but the motion doesn't look right at all. It's jerky and almost animatronic. She looks him in the eyes, and he knows.

This isn't her. Or it is her, but she's not...herself.

Her lips curl into an awful smile, and she starts to raise one of her hands.

Shit. She still has the knife.

"Brick," Not-Blossom says brightly. "I've been waiting for you. Or, that's not right, is it?" She giggles, and it makes him sick. Because this isn't her speaking. "It's more like _you've_ been waiting for something. For a really long time, right? Right?"

Her blank eyes grow wide and she leans closer to him, but she's still a few feet away. "Haven't you wanted her to die? Weren't you and your brothers created to kill her and her sisters? Well guess what! She's going to suffer so much. I bet you can't wait. Tonight you finally get your dream."

She raises the knife high and points the blade at her throat.  
 _  
He handed it to her he gave it to her fuck she's going to—_

"Or is it your nightmare?"

The knife plunges downward, straight toward her jugular.

x

"BLOSSOM _NO_ –" Brick lunges for her, tackling her and sending them both sprawling. Not-Blossom is biting and hissing and scratching, trying to get away but Brick manages to get the knife away from her. However, the thing slices his right hand, leaving a deep, diagonal slash that will probably leave a scar.

" _Shit_ , Blossom, stop – augh!" Not-Blossom is still fighting, and he flings the knife away, far away so she can't reach.

"You imprudent _fool!_ " The thing inside Blossom spits, baring her teeth at him. "She was so close! _So close_! Her blood could've joined the rest, rotting for the rest of time, but _noooo!_ You had to play hero!" Brick's anger flares.

" _Get out of her._ " He snarls. Not-Blossom's lips curl into another awful smile. She stops struggling and leans close to his face.

"No." she says triumphantly. Brick scowls.

"Fucking hell, _leave her alone_ goddammit, or else I'll –" He's cut off by the creepiest laugh he has ever heard in his entire life. It's a little girl's laugh, but it sounds like three girls are laughing at once, and it's too high pitched and cackle-y to be normal. Brick stops, and Not-Blossom's eyes light up.

"Oooh, _company!_ " She sings. She pushes Brick away, and he rolls to the side, scooping up the knife just in case. He's covered in Blossom's blood from rolling around on the floor. Blossom is drenched in it. He rises to a defensive crouch and watches as Not-Blossom gets to her feet, her movements still jerky and robotic. She smiles into the shadows, and another figure appears.

"Amyyyy!" She says happily, and Brick wants to rip his own ears off. The _real_ Blossom does not sound like that. That – that _thing_ is still inside her. Controlling her.

The other figure steps into the light and Brick falters.

It's Buttercup.

"What the fuck?" Brick mutters to himself. Buttercup smiles and Brick notices her eyes. They're the same as Blossom's – too wide, too blank. It's not Buttercup.

"Amy!" She squeals (it's definitely not Buttercup, she doesn't _squeal_ ), rushing to Not-Blossom and embracing her. Not-Buttercup's movements are off as well. _But...she called Not-Blossom Amy too? Are they both Amy?  
_  
Both turn to Brick, matching evil grins on their faces and eyes blank. Brick notices that the colors of their eyes seem to have faded, like there's a screen over them.

Brick grips the knife.

"What's this?" Not-Buttercup says as she looks at Brick. Not-Blossom smirks.

"He's Blossom's _boyfriend_." Not-Blossom giggles. "I was _this close_ to killing Blossom, but he got in the way." She shrugs. "Shame. Her blood would've gone nicely with the rest." Not-Buttercup nods.

"I was thinking the same for Buttercup."

" _LEAVE THEM ALONE_ ," Brick yells. Suddenly, there's a flash of yellow-green light, and Blossom and Buttercup's shoulders droop, heads falling forward and eyes half-lidded.

Brick looks above them, where a little girl with black curly hair and a ripped dress is floating. Her body is smoky, made of the white mist he and Blossom had discovered. Her eyes are impossibly big and glow a sickly yellow-green color. Two balls of the same color light float above Blossom and Buttercup's heads.

The little girl smiles at him.

"Hello. My name is Amy."

x

"Boomer, did you hear that?" Bubbles is gripping his hand, looking behind them, towards the forest.

"Yeah." He says quietly, pulling his girlfriend closer.

"It sounded..." Bubbles swallows. "It sounded like Buttercup." Boomer doesn't respond, but he does look back towards the center of the lake. The figure they had seen not moments before is gone.

"Bubbles." She looks up at him. "We need to find the others." They start back towards dry land. Boomer keeps an eye on the lake behind them, making sure nothing is following them. He doesn't need that nightmarish-vision-thing he had before to come true. Bubbles tugs him forward, and the couple starts to run. The thunderclouds are almost at the moon now. A few more minutes and they'll cover up the moon entirely.

Once they're back on land, by the flagpole, Boomer lets out a silent sigh of relief.

That relief vanishes in two seconds flat.

"GUYS!" Butch is suddenly there, barreling towards them at top speed. Bubbles looks at him worriedly.

"Butch?" She asks. "Where's Buttercup? We heard a scream and –" Butch cuts her off.

"We found something...some _one_ , fuck, it was creepy as hell, first Buttercup finds a kid's shoe, then we find the other one and a hair bow, then we find the kid _itself_ and it's not - it's a scary as shit little demon child _thing_ and it starts chasing us and then we lost it but when we started back here it found us and _took Buttercup_ , dammit, she slipped right through my _fingers_ and –"

"Butch, shut up for a second!" Boomer exclaims, shaking his brother's shoulders briefly. Butch obeys.

"You said a demon child? Took Buttercup?" He asks, looking Butch in the eye. Butch nods. Boomer steels his resolve.

"Okay. Here's what we're gonna do." Boomer says, taking hold of Bubbles' hand again. She looks close to tears. "Bubbles and I checked out the lake, we didn't find anything. The only other place to go is the cafeteria –"

"– where Brick and Blossom are." Bubbles finishes, coming to the same realization as him. Butch's eyes widen as he connects the dots.

"Oh shit."

x

"Who the hell are you?" Brick demands, eyeing the demon girl warily. She simply smiles at him. He wants to stab her in the eyes.

"I just told you, silly. I'm Amy. I died here." Brick is caught off guard at her blunt statement.

"You...you died here? As in this camp?" Amy nods.

"About ten years ago." Her voice is grating, high-pitched and breathy. He's already annoyed by it. "I drowned in the lake." _Maybe if I keep her talking I can figure out a way to get through to Blossom and Buttercup?_

"Okay...and?" Brick says, urging her to continue. _Think Brick_ think _. How do you get two people out of demon possession? Dammit – my hand is starting to really fucking hurt_.

"I never got to grow up, go to high school, get a boyfriend..." She sighs. "So I _hate_ all the girls who get to do that!" Her attitude suddenly changes, becoming hostile and dangerous. The mist around her thickens and coils and the balls of yellow-green light flare for a moment before returning to normal.

"So I kill them." Amy says flippantly. She looks at Blossom and Buttercup, who haven't moved. "These two are my newest finds. They're so pretty, don't you think? That's why I possessed them. They're _too_ pretty. It'll be fun to watch you and that other boy react when I make them kill themselves." Brick's eyes narrow.

 _Other boy – Butch. So they met her first...damn._

"Why is all that blood in the sinkhole?" He questions, trying to get her to keep talking. He slowly rises from his crouch to a standing position.

"Oh, that? That's how I get rid of them." Amy's smile widens. "That's all the blood from the people I've killed...it looks like a lot more than it is, but isn't it great? Oh, I just love it...it's so nice, all of that blood! Such a pretty color. I always liked red. Ooh, and pink. Pink was my favorite color, you know. Just like her eyes..." She pats Blossom's head affectionately. Brick resists the urge to throw the knife at Amy's face. _Not yet. Wait._

"Anyway. First, I hold them up over the pit, you know, reeeaally high. Makes them scared. They make the funniest faces when they're begging for me to stop!" She laughs, and Brick swears his ears are going to start bleeding soon. _Where are Bubbles and Boomer and Butch?_

"You're sick." He spits out. Amy's smile doesn't falter, but she shakes her head.

"Oh, so angry. How come? Is it because I'm gonna kill your girlfriend?" Brick snarls at her. "Ooh, it is! I don't see why you like her though...you used to hate her. Wanted her dead, in fact. What happened?" Brick doesn't answer.

He glares at her, practically breathing fire.

"Well. You're a little too late, I'm afraid. She's my puppet now." Amy pats her head again. "Hmm, you know what? Just because I'm nice, I'll let you have her back." She motions to Buttercup. "She wasn't all that fun anyway. Kept fighting me, screaming horrible things about me. Plus, you don't care as much for her as you do for Blossom."

" _Let Blossom go._ " Brick snaps. Amy shakes her head, smiling.

"So angry. This will be fun!" She reaches out a hand and the ball of light above Buttercup's head floats over to join with the one over Blossom's. Buttercup falls to the ground, completely unconscious. Brick rushes forward and picks her up, taking her back to where he was before. Amy laughs again. Thunder booms in the distance.

"Aw man, a storm's coming!" Amy pouts. "I'd better kill Blossom soon, once the full moon's gone I disappear and can't come back until I get another body to add to the blood pit..." She's talking to herself now, but Brick is listening in. "My heart needs more than just little sacrifices though, I have to find a bigger power source soon..."

 _The full moon? That's what gives her fucking strength? Crazy psycho demon child...but what's this about her heart? Is that how she keeps coming back?_

A plan starts to form in his mind. But first:

"Buttercup..." Brick lightly slaps her cheek. "Buttercup wake up." No response. "Goddammit, you're just like Butch aren't you?" He slaps her a bit harder. Still nothing. "Fine...be that way." He mutters, inhaling deeply. "Buttercup. Fucking wake the hell up." He says, in the same voice he uses to wake Butch up. Buttercup gasps and jerks her arm out, punching him square in the chest.

"Jesus Christ–!" Brick leans back, glaring darkly at her and Buttercup sits up quickly.

"Brick? What the fuck, where the hell am I, what's going –" Then she takes notice of Blossom. And the demon child who abducted her.

" _You,_ " She snarls, leaping forward. Brick wraps his arms around her, restraining her. " _No_ , Brick, you asshole, lemme _go_ , that thing has my sister!" Buttercup kicks and fights against him, but Brick holds firm.

"Stop fighting." He hisses in her ear. "I have a plan." Buttercup stops, but she's still baring her teeth angrily at Amy. The ghost is eyeing her with obvious distaste.

"Hmph." She sniffs. "I like Blossom better." Then there's another flash of yellow-green light, and Blossom straightens, eyes too wide and face too blank. Her smile is pointed, unnatural, and Brick knows it's not Blossom.

"Did that thing just possess my sister?" Buttercup whispers to him. Brick only nods. Buttercup's fists clench, but fortunately, she listens to him and doesn't attack.

"Well, I'd love to stay and chat, but I've got a girl to kill! Ta-ta!" And with that, Amy-Blossom disappears down a hall that definitely wasn't there before.

"What do we do –" Buttercups starts, but Brick puts a hand over her mouth to silence her. She glares at him, and he nods in the direction Amy-Blossom went.

"C'mon." He walks forward silently, knife still in hand. Buttercup follows behind him, keeping an eye out for anything behind them.

The two can hear Amy-Blossom a little ways ahead of them, humming. She's skipping along, completely oblivious.

"Eight year old ghosts are idiots..." Buttercup mutters, voice so quiet Brick is the only one who hears her. They follow Amy-Blossom down the hall, and Brick sees that the ceiling is gradually sloping downward, gently.

 _'We're under the cabins'_ , He mouths to Buttercup. She nods in understanding.

Suddenly, up ahead, Amy-Blossom stops. Brick and Buttercup freeze in their tracks.

"Nngh...no, stop it..." Amy-Blossom clutches her head. "Stop _fighting_! Stop! I control you!" Buttercup and Brick look at each other. Blossom is fighting against Amy. "Leave me alone!" Blossom's voice - her _actual_ voice – rings through the hallway, desperate and pleading and sounding like she was in pain. " _No!_ " Amy's voice is back, snarling. " _I CONTROL YOU_. YOU ARE MINE NOW." Brick's jaw clenches and Buttercup's hands curl into fists. "Ugh, be quiet! You're going to die soon anyway!" Amy-Blossom shakes her head and smiles evilly. "Yes, that's better. No more fighting out of you." She laughs. She starts humming again and continues down the hallway, Brick and Buttercup following.

She doesn't stop until they reach another doorway, this one on the left. Amy-Blossom peeks inside, smiles widely, then continues on her way. Brick motions for Buttercup to follow him. They look in the doorway.

The room is big, and is empty save for two things:

1) A floating heart in the middle of the room, glowing yellow-green .

2) About fifty little balls of matching floating light. The balls float around the room lazily, some bouncing off walls but most just staying put.

"Is that her heart?" Buttercup asks Brick, whispering. Brick nods. Buttercup pulls out the white hair bow and slowly puts her arm inside the room, holding the satin close to a floating orb. As soon as the fabric comes into contact with the ball of light, it catches fire and turns to ash. Buttercup yanks her hand back, not wanting to get burned.

"Okay, here's what we have to do." Brick says. Buttercup looks up at him. "You have to get to the heart. When I yell for you, _destroy it_. Give it everything you've got, just make sure that it's turned to _dust_ , alright?" She nods determinedly.

"What are you going to do?" Brick pops his neck and rolls his shoulders back.

"I'm going after Blossom."

x

"How long is this damn path?!" Butch says, looking at his brother. Boomer shrugs as best he can while sprinting.

"I dunno!" He replies. Butch rolls his eyes. Bubbles stumbles, but both Boomer and Butch grab her arms and help her get back to her feet. She smiles at them half-heartedly.

"Thanks guys." She squeezes their hands.

"No problem babe."

"Yeah, don't sweat it, Barbie."

x

Brick slinks down the hallway silently, using the shadows to his advantage. Amy-Blossom still hasn't suspected she's being followed. _Stupid ghost girl._

Thunder booms again, shaking the ground just slightly. The storm's getting pretty close.

"Oh, I'd better hurry." Amy-Blossom says to herself, giggling. "Don't want the rain to ruin perfectly good blood!"

 _Scratch that. This girl is fucking off her rocker._

"Such pretty blood too...it's all over her, oopsies!" Amy-Blossom laughs as she looks down at herself. It's true; Blossom is covered in her own blood. Brick is too. Buttercup had given him scraps of fabric from her shirt ("It's already fucking ripped, just take it!") so he could wrap his injured hand.

He still held on to the knife, though. You never know, it could come in handy.

"Okay, here we go!" Amy-Blossom says, stepping into another room. Brick looks around the doorway as Amy-Blossom climbs a ladder and rams her fist against the ceiling. It shakes; she hits it again. Then, with a groan, a door pushes up and Amy-Blossom's head and shoulder disappear. The rest of her body follows. Brick counts to thirty before he goes up another rickety ladder. At the top, he finds himself looking at the sinkhole of blood again. The door is pushed back onto the ground. It's a trapdoor leading below the cabins, where the tunnels must be. He looks around and finds Amy-Blossom, standing in front of the sinkhole with her arms raised.

"Ahh." She sighs happily. "Now for the _fun_." There's another flash of yellow-green light. Ghost Amy is now floating over Blossom, only this time there's not ball of light over her head. Blossom's eyes are wide open and she's hugging herself, tears starting to fall from her eyes.

x

Buttercup takes a deep breath after Brick runs off after Amy-Blossom. She studies the room. Most of the lights are floating around the middle and top areas of the room, in random patterns. _If I stick to the floor and keep a look out, I should be okay._

"Alright, Buttercup." She tells herself. "You can do this. You can do this. Just get to the heart, and wait for the signal. Easy. For Blossom. For Blossom." She takes another deep breath, shakes out her arms, and gets on the floor. She wriggles forward on her knees and elbows, keeping her butt low to the ground. Every couple of seconds she stops, and looks around to make sure no lights are near her.

Sometimes she has to position herself awkwardly to avoid getting burned, but so far, so good. After about a minute she's halfway there. Nervous sweat is starting to gather on her forehead.

"Come on, Buttercup. Just a little further. You got this." She inches forward again. Stops. Readjusts her legs to avoid light. Presses her cheek flat against the floor to avoid another light. Makes sure the coast is clear. Inches forward.

Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

She doesn't know how much time has passed. Five minutes? Ten?

But she does it. SHE GETS TO THE HEART.

"Fuck yes!" She whisper-screams to herself. The lights don't go near the heart, so she sits cross legged underneath it, watching. Waiting. Listening.

x

"W-Why are you doing this to me?" Blossom asks, her voice raw and scratchy. Amy smiles.

"Because you're too pretty, and Brick cares for you, _a lot_. And it's not fair that you get to live a life that I never had. So I'm going to kill you. But trust me, it won't hurt as much as what happened inside your head." At this, Blossom lets out a sob. Brick's chest burns and he can feel his temper rising. " _That_ was fun. You put up such a good fight. But now, it's over. Say goodbye to your life." And then, before Blossom can move, Amy has a thick tendril of mist wrapped around Blossom's neck. She launches into the sky, Blossom following her up, dangling by the tendril.

Blossom screams, loud and shrill, and she grips the tendril with her hands, kicking and struggling. Amy's in front of her, eye-to-eye with her, and she's laughing.

"Oh, Blossom, dear," She says. "Look down." Blossom glances down against her better judgment, and sees where she's hanging.

Right above the sinkhole filled with blood.

She lets out another scream, this one full of pure _panic_. Brick wants so badly to get out of the trapdoor hole, but he knows that will give him away, and he can't afford that just yet.

"Dammit, Blossom..." he says.

Amy is squeezing the tendril tighter and tighter, cutting off Blossom's air flow.

"HELP!" She screeches before she loses her breath. "ANYONE! HELP ME!" Amy squeezes tighter, and she can't talk any longer. She's pulling at the mist around her neck, trying to loosen it, free herself, _anything_ , but it's not working. Spots appear in the corner of her vision.

Brick slowly pulls himself out of the hole, his eyes never leaving Blossom's figure.

x

"That sounded like Blossom!" Bubbles says, looking at Boomer.

"C'mon, there's the fire pit now, we're close!" The trio runs past the fire pit as fast as they can, heading for the cabins and cafeteria.

"Hurry!" Butch urges. After another minute of running, they see the cabin and cafeteria. Once they reach the clearing and get a good view of what's happening, they stop short.

Brick is standing off to the right, looking up and holding a large knife in his right hand. He's covered in blood.

Blossom is dangling above a large, stinking pit, and a small...ghost- _thing_ is laughing in front of her.

"That's it! That's what was chasing Buttercup and I, and what abducted her!" Butch points.

"Ohmygod, _Blossom,_ " Bubbles gasps in horror.

"Where's Buttercup?" Butch looks around, but doesn't see her. His question goes unanswered, Boomer and Bubbles too focused on the scene in front of them.

x

Blossom can't breathe. She's starting to lose her vision. Her head is pounding in time with her heart, her skull feeling like it's too small for her brain.

She can't think. She can't focus.

She's sure her face is purple by now from lack of oxygen. But she won't go down without a fight. Using up the very last bit of her strength, she manages to choke out one word.

"F-Freak..." Amy's eyes widen and she stops laughing.

"What did you just say to me?" She says, leaning closer. The tendril loosens slightly, and Blossom sucks in a greedy breath, her vision still spinning but no longer darkening. She's silent as she catches her breath, and Amy shakes her a bit.

" _What_ did you just say to me?!" Amy demands, eyes glowing brightly. Blossom inhales.

"Freak," She spits in Amy's face. "I said you're a _freak_. An anomaly. Miscreant. Monstrosity. Nutcase. Complete and utter _lunatic_." With each insult Amy's eyes get brighter and brighter until she just explodes.

" _HOW DARE YOU?!_ " The four teenagers below can all clearly hear her, and three of them wince. One only tightens their grip on a certain kitchen utensil. "HOW DARE YOU SAY THAT TO _ME!_ I WILL DESTROY YOU! YOU STUPID, FOOLISH, GIRL!"

"No." Blossom retorts. " _You're_ the stupid, foolish girl Amy. Not me." Amy lets out a howl of rage and the tendril around Blossom's neck dissolves. Blossom drops about two feet before Amy grabs her long, waist-length hair and yanks it up in her hand. Blossom lets out a cry of pain at the pressure put on her scalp.

Bubbles gasps, Butch and Boomer tense, and Brick almost loses it.

Amy grins sadistically.

"That's right. _I_ hold all of the cards here. No one can help you now." Blossom shivers at the darkness of Amy's tone. The fear that was erased by the rush of adrenaline comes crashing back down on her. "I'm going to kill you Blossom. And I'm going to _love_ watching you die."

" _BLOSSOM!_ " Brick practically roars. Blossom and Amy both look down at him.

"What is he doing?" Amy frowns in disgust. Brick holds up something in his hand and throws it with all his might. It soars up, spinning end-over-end, arcing perfectly to meet with Blossom. As it gets closer she recognizes it as the knife Brick gave her earlier.

And just like that, an idea hits her like a ton of...well, _bricks_.

She stretches her fingers out and catches the knife hilt. Before Amy can process what she's doing, Blossom reaches up, and does the unthinkable.

She cuts her hair.

The knife swipes through the thick red strands and then Blossom is falling, falling, _falling_ towards the pit of blood. She doesn't have any energy to save herself; she's helpless against the forces of gravity. She lets go of the knife and screams for all she's worth.

Down below, Bubbles lets out a scream of her own.

"NOW BUTTERCUP!" Brick yells. Then, he bolts forward, eyes determined. He breaks straight through the fence around the sinkhole and his feet leave the ground as he leaps up into the air from the edge of the pit. He tackles Blossom in midair, his momentum sending the both of them across the pit. They tumble to a stop on the other side, in front of cabin 3; Blossom sprawled across Brick's chest and his arms tight around her waist.

"AAAAUUUUUUGGGH!"

x

As soon as Brick's shout reaches her, Buttercup raises a fist and fires at the heart.

It starts to crack.

She grits her teeth and puts her other fist up, doubling the power aimed at the wretched thing. _I'm going to destroy it. That little witch isn't ever coming back to hurt anyone again._

x

"HOW DARE YOU," Amy is screaming, and things are starting to get bad again. "LOOK AT WHAT YOU DID."

She tosses her handful of Blossom's pretty red hair away and screams. Below, Butch grits his teeth and covers his ears while Boomer pulls a crying Bubbles into his side and grimaces. The sound grates across them and everything else and echoes awfully.

"I'M GOING TO KILL ALL OF YOU. _ALL OF YOU_. BUT FIRST," She snarls down at Blossom, "I'M GOING TO START WITH YOU." Amy makes a move to lower herself to the ground and snatch the redhead out of Brick's arms, but she stops halfway. She puts a hand to her chest and her face contorts in pain.

"Ow, ow. It hurts! Why does it hurt?!"

She starts to scream again, and it's worse than before. Bubbles clamps her hands over her ears and Butch slides closer to her while Boomer holds her close to his chest.

Suddenly, like it was never there, the screaming stops. Butch opens one eye just in time to see the demon child explode and melt away completely. It's nothing like horror movies portray it to be. And then, it's silent save for the sound of Bubbles' crying.

A minute later, Buttercup steps out of the cafeteria, looking grim but pleased with herself. There are twigs and bits of leaves sticking out of her hair, she has scrapes and bruises everywhere, her hands are dirty, there are dirt and blood smears all over her face, but she's alive.

And she has the migraine of a century.

"Getting possessed makes you feel like shit," She moans, lightly touching her fingers to her forehead. "I feel like I have the worst case of sea sickness _ever_. Seriously, I'm gonna hurl." Then she sees—or, more accurately, _smells_ —the giant pit of blood. Her face goes almost as green as her eyes and she starts to sway on her feet.

Butch rushes over to catch her before she hits the ground. Wearily, she stares up at his concerned face through hooded eyes. _Butch? Concerned? I never thought I'd think those two words in the same sentence. Have I actually died?_

"You're okay."

His voice is quiet, rougher than usual. She raises her pointer finger woozily. "I wouldn't exactly say that, but sure. I'm not dead...if...that's what you're asking."

Bubbles has mostly stopped crying at this point, and Boomer sighs. Heavily. "I hate summer camp."

Blossom is completely still on Brick's chest. His arms are still loosely wrapped around her, and he can feel her erratic but constant heartbeat against his chest. Her face is turned into his hoodie, her hands tightly gripping onto it. He's not even sure she's conscious.

Carefully, slowly, he slips one hand back behind her hair and rests it on her cheek. "Blossom?"

She raises her head and looks at him, tears mixing with the blood and grime on her cheeks. Her hair is uneven, some parts longer than others, and her eyes look like she's in pain. He's instantly on alert.

"Hey," He says, "Are you..." _Okay? No. Hurt? Obviously. Dying? Possibly._ Her chest heaves against his own, and when she speaks, her voice sounds broken.

Maybe it hurts him more than she's actually hurting.

She can see him at five. Trying to kill her. His brothers trying to kill her sisters. Amy's nasty words and thought projections keep replaying over and over in her mind. Only they're not five anymore.

"Brick," Her voice trembles, cracks, _breaks._ "...Do you really want me to die?"

x

Brick blinks. _Did I just hear her right?_

She's looking at him, eyebrows drawn together and lips tilted into a pained frown. She's trying not to cry, but the tears spill over anyway. She bites her lip and chokes back a sob. Brick instinctually tightens his arms around her, and does the next thing without thinking.

He kisses her. Hard.

Blossom's eyes widen in shock and then she feels this – this _overwhelming_ sense of pure _relief_. She cries harder, gripping his hoodie in her hands as tight as she can. Brick just holds her tighter in response, a hand coming up to bury itself in her hair.

She's still crying. He can feel her tears on his face and taste her blood (or is it his?) but all he can focus on is _her_.

Blossom.

And the burning sensation in his chest dissolves, knowing that she's herself (not possessed by some damn ghost child) and in his arms.

After a few moments, they separate. It's slow, their breaths mingling and eyes still closed. When she opens her eyes, he's looking at her, gaze the most intense she's ever seen it. What little breath she has is stolen from her chest, and she can feel her heart skip a beat.

"Does that answer your question?" He whispers gravelly. "Of course I don't want you to die, stupid." But his voice is gentle, and he's not mad. But she knows, she knows what he wants to say next. She knows what he's silently asking her. She shudders.

"I-I'm sorry." she breathes. "It's just...when...Amy –" She pauses, just the name itself causing a small twinge of fear in her, even though she knows Amy is gone forever. "When she possessed me, I was trying...I was trying to fight back. I saw everything that happened, heard every word she said through me and...me and Buttercup." Brick slowly sits up, Blossom still in his arms. He focuses on her, only her, as she's talking. She's still holding onto his hoodie, but now she's in his lap, turned against his chest. By now their siblings have made their way over, and all but collapse on the ground around the two leaders.

Buttercup is still woozy, so she's leaning heavily against Butch's shoulder. This is one of those rare times when he looks absolutely serious. Bubbles is under Boomer's arm, tucked into his side. They all watch and listen to Blossom carefully.

"It was like I was trapped in my own mind." Blossom's eyes take on a distant, haunted look, and her face is deathly pale. "I couldn't...I couldn't control my body. And then...I started seeing...things. Horrible, _awful_ things." She starts to shake. "Amy...she showed me how she died – drowned, I mean. It was so _cold_ , and dark, and I could see was water, water _everywhere_ , and I couldn't escape. Then...then she showed me...she showed me how she _killed_ –" Her voice cracks and tears flow down her cheeks, mixing in with the blood and dirt (mostly blood) already on her face. "...How she killed all those poor people! And she was – she was _laughing_ , as she was showing me, and I _felt_ them. The victims. I felt every single of them – their pain, their fear, _everything_. It's like I died every time they did." Blossom cries harder, and Brick strokes her hair in an attempt to calm her (and himself).

Bubbles covers her mouth with her hand, and Boomer's eyes are wide. Butch's fists clench and Buttercup's eyes darken. "And I couldn't escape, I couldn't _get away_ , I knew what would happen, I was going to die with the victim, but I couldn't stop it. I couldn't stop it!" She's sobbing now, crying hysterically into Brick's chest. He wraps her in his arms, his chin resting on top of her hair.

After a minute she calms down enough to continue.

"She...she showed me other things too." Blossom sniffs. "She gave me visions of all the different ways she could kill me, and all of the ways she could kill you too." She looks at them, all of them. "Amy was going to kill all of us. But she...but she gave _me_ the worst deaths." Her voice quivers. "A-After the visions, I was in so much pain. I couldn't think straight, it hurt so much." Her voice drops to a broken whisper. "I was so _scared_."

x

"Hey," Brick says quietly, brushing back her hair and tilting her head back to look at him. "Hey. You're okay. We're okay."

Her chest heaves again, and he pulls her into him. She buries her face in his shoulder and he holds the back of her head with one hand. Blossom's pretty red hair sticks through his fingers, and he presses a kiss to the top of her head.

Brick leans into her hair and closes his eyes. "You're okay."

Boomer tosses his head back and sighs. "What a night. I don't ever want to see another horror movie for five years. Maybe my entire life."

Buttercup groans and sluggishly turns her nose into Butch's neck. "I know I don't ever want to be possessed again. My head feels all weird. Am I sweating? I feel like I'm in the fucking center of the earth."

"Don't throw up on me," Butch makes a face. "I actually like these shoes."

"You sound like such a _girl_."

He raises his brows. "Then why don't you just kiss me and shut me up?"

"You fuckin'—" Buttercup narrows her eyes at him. "Y'know what, maybe I should just throw up in your mouth."

Bubbles makes an extremely displeased sound and scoots away from the middle siblings. "Ewww. I didn't need to hear that."

"I wanna go home," Butch groans.

Buttercup nods her head, then decides it was a bad decision. "Seconded."

Blossom presses her lips to Brick's neck, which does _not_ send a shiver down his spine. Nobody else notices her action, or his reaction, so there's that to be thankful for. He helps her stand up and gives her his hoodie. She slips it on carefully, and the sleeves are so long they cover her blood-stained fingers. Blossom clutches the front together and slips her other hand into Brick's.

"From now on, we do not take _any_ calls on Halloween," Buttercup grumbles as she— _unfortunately_ —has to lean on Butch. "At least not ones from crazy murder camps haunted by a creepy little psychotic bitch. I think I'm going to need therapy after tonight."

Bubbles jumps as a crack of thunder stretches across the sky. "That makes two of us."

Brick threads his fingers through Blossom's. "Let's get the fuck out of here."

x

Butch hauls Buttercup onto his back, much to her chagrin. "Let's blow this popsicle stand."

"Everything's an opportunity to you, isn't it."

x

.

.

 **can I just say how much I love all of these couples bc they have taken over my life I am ppg/rrb trASH I TELL YOU. TRASH.**

 **whelp, here's another _monster_ (pfft Halloween pun i'm crYING WHY AM I SO LAME?) oneshot for y'all! leave a review, see if you can make me laugh ;p love you all~**

 **peace out girl scouts,**

 **two red converse**


	3. headless horseman

**disclaimer: yEET.  
** **dedication: TODAY (yesterday? idk what time it is.) IS HALLOWEEN YESSS. I HAD SO MUCH FUN I LOVE DRESSING UP.** **note: i don't have anything to say except today was so fun and i love trick-or-treating.  
playlist: eerie/creepy music.**

.

.

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x

One thing that not many people know about is the Utonium family's love of fall. Especially Halloween.

Buttercup and Bubbles love making jack-o-lanterns. Like, _love_ it. They're both crazy talented when doing it too, since they're so into it. Of course, Bubbles does all the creative, artistic ones and Buttercup does scarily good creepy ones ("They're supposed to scare away ghosts! Like hell am I letting some ghost get into our house because of some wimpy ass jack-o-lantern!").

And Blossom just thinks it's funny to watch Buttercup and Bubbles laugh and squeal (respectively) as they gut the tons of pumpkins.

Plus, if there's one thing Blossom can cook, it's pumpkins. She may be a menace in the kitchen on a regular day, but in the fall she has everyone beat. Blossom's the only one who can make almost any pumpkin dish there is. She can make all sorts of dishes with pumpkins, so around Halloween they eat a lot of pumpkin. (Not that her family minds.)

The family always picks up a TON of pumpkins from the local pumpkin patch. The Professor likes to snack on the roasted seeds while he's holed away in the lab.

So yes. The Utoniums LOVE fall, and especially pumpkins.

x

It's a Friday – the 31st of October, to be exact.

"IT'S HALLOWEEN FUCK YEAH." Buttercup's loud yell echoes through the house, even though it's only 7 am.

"Buttercup, language!" Blossom reproachful tone quickly follows.

The two sisters soon appear in the kitchen, where Bubbles is cooking turkey bacon at the stove and the Professor is at the table, reading the day's newspaper.

"Morning girls." He greets them warmly.

"Morning Professor." Blossom and Buttercup say simultaneously.

"Are you going to carve your pumpkins tonight?" He asks, setting down the paper as Bubbles sets breakfast on the table.

"Yep." Buttercup nods. "Jack-o-lanterns are best when they're just carved." Bubbles nods in agreement.

"Well, I'm afraid I can't join you this year." The Professor admits sadly. "I just got a big assignment in from work; I've got to spend all night making observations, starting the experiments, and gathering data." Blossom pats his hand from her seat next to him.

"It's alright Professor," She assures, her sisters nodding in agreement. "We'll survive. We're not planning on going anywhere anyway." Professor Utonium smiles gratefully and the family continues to talk and eat.

x

Eight hours later, school is out and the Powerpuff Girls are in their home, specifically the kitchen.

Buttercup and Bubbles are at the dining table, newspaper lying across the top and carving tools and pumpkins spread out before them. Several pumpkins have already been placed outside along the wraparound porch, and more are resting in the kitchen, waiting to be carved, painted, or cooked.

Blossom's bustling around the kitchen, apron tied around her waist and hair pulled back out of the way. The counter and fridge are both piled with all sorts of treats, all made with pumpkin. Pies, cheesecakes, soups, cakes, rolls, breads, fudge, bread puddings, you name it, she can make it.

All of the neighborhood kids _love_ trick or treating at the Utonium house because the jack-o-lanterns are the coolest ones in Townsville, and Blossom always hands out sweet pumpkin treats to kids and parents alike.

6:00 rolls around and Bubbles and Buttercup finish carving and painting the pumpkins, arranging them outside. Bubbles places candles inside each one and lights each one. Buttercup flips on the orange and purple lights hung around the porch and the two retreat inside the house.

Bubbles cleans up the pumpkin mess and the three sisters stay in the kitchen, snacking on some of Blossom's treats while the redhead continues cooking.

The peace is undisturbed until –

"HONEY, I'M HOME!" Butch's loud voice rings through the house as the front door bursts open. Buttercup rolls her eyes.

"Ever heard of knocking, asshole?" She gripes, stepping out of the kitchen and into the living room to glare at the newcomers. Butch, followed by Boomer and a bored-looking Brick, enters the living room.

The smell of pumpkin and cinnamon promptly hits them in the face.

x

"Have I died and gone to a fucking pumpkin patch?" Butch actually recoils at the strong waft of everything, well, _pumpkin_ that slams the boys in the face.

Boomer, however, makes a beeline straight for the kitchen. "Blossom! Did you make a pumpkin roll? Or pumpkin cookies? Pumpkin pie? Pumpkin walnut cheesecake? Do I smell cinnamon? Did you use cinnamon?"

Brick and Butch exchange a bewildered glance (although Brick's is more stoic) as their youngest brother rambles on. Since when had he taken an interest in Blossom's...erm, cooking? Was it since she'd almost burned down the house making roasted chicken? The time she set off the fail-safe sprinkler system (which they have because of the Professor's line of work) trying to bake brownies? Or when she'd turned blueberry muffins to stone?

In fact, hadn't Buttercup mentioned something about Blossom being banned from cooking?

"How about all of the above?" Blossom smiles, hands hidden away in oven mitts as she holds a steaming tray of pumpkin cinnamon cookies.

Her pretty red hair is pulled back into a messy bun, there's a large flour smear on her right cheek, and cinnamon staining her lips.

Boomer eagerly leans over the hot platter, looking like a little kid on Christmas morning.

Brick and Butch should know, they've only lived with him for the past twelve years. That excited expression is usually reserved for something very special.

Blossom's probably toxic cooking?

Not so.

"Can I have one Blossom? Pretty please? I promise it won't spoil my dinner," Boomer begs, dancing around from leg to leg. The corners of her eyes and her nose crinkle as she tries not to laugh. She looks so pretty.

"Sure, just—" He snatches one off the pan and shoves it into his mouth with much fervor.

"—be _careful_! They just came out of the oven!"

He swallows and grins at her. "Spectacular. As to be expected from the commander and leader. Your baking is _divine_. I've died and gone to heaven."

Buttercup leans in the door and rolls her eyes. "Don't be so dramatic, you dweeb. It's not like you're a judge at the county fair or something."

"Is there a job like that? Can I apply? Blossom would always win," Boomer comments.

Blossom's cheeks turn the same color as her eyes. "What? No. You're just trying to flatter me."

Boomer leans against the counter. "Because you should be _flattered_."

She makes a noise in the back of her throat and turns to the remaining brothers, looking flustered. She holds out the tray. "Do you um, do you want one? There's plenty to go around."

Butch is somewhat wary of the autumn treats because the last time he'd taken a bite of something Blossom made, he'd died a little inside. Brick eyes the tray with much suspicion, and deduces that his brother is probably brain dead from whatever his counterpart had baked. Surprisingly, Butch hesitantly reaches forward and cautiously takes one of the cookies off the pan. He very slowly, very deliberately lifts the thing to his mouth and takes the tiniest bite. He looks so pretentious, and un-Butch-like. It's probably the most thought out thing he's ever done in his life.

He freezes, his eyes dilating wide and there's a sharp intake of breath. Then —

Butch downs the cookie in two bites.

"What the fuck was that."

Brick catches a glance of Blossom's earnest, eager, and imploring expression (which is probably what made Butch take one of her cookies, because no one can resist that face, he already feels his resolve crumbling) before she frowns at Butch's curse.

"I didn't know," Butch says, reaching for another cookie. "That you could do _that_. What is this witchcraft. Blossom. Why've you been holding out on us?"

She blushes again and waves his hand away as he starts to pile cookies in his hand. "It's not...it's a family tradition!"

"Bloss just has this crazy weird talent with anything pumpkin when it comes to cooking or baking," Bubbles cheerfully relays to them. "It's funny."

Butch turns on his younger brother. "How'd you know about this, Boom? And why were you fucking holding out on us? I thought we were brothers. This is very important information."

Boomer shrugs as Blossom sternly reprimands Butch for his language. She's ignored. "You guys avoid her cooking like the plague. I just figured you wouldn't have listened to me."

Brick reluctantly picks up one of the cookies and takes a bite. It's amazing. This shouldn't be possible.

Buttercup's smug smirk changes to a look of annoyance when something bangs against the kitchen door. It makes the other girls jump, and Butch and Boomer start to panic as the cookies almost drop to the floor. Bubbles is pretty sure she hears a hiss of ' _precious_ '.

 _Weird._

"Damn neighbor kid pranksters," Buttercup mumbles to herself and starts across the kitchen to the back door. "What the hell've they done now."

Butch grabs a few cookies and shuffles after her. "Wait! I wanna come too!"

It's mostly silent in the kitchen for a few moments until there's a cry of despair from outside. Buttercup comes stomping back inside, Butch munching on his handful of cookies, trailing in her wake. She points to the door and...wait...is that… _pumpkin_ insides sliding down the window?

"DO YOU SEE WHAT THEY DID?" Buttercup yells. "THOSE STUPID KIDS THREW MY JACK-O-LANTERN AT THE DOOR. IT'S SMASHED. AND MY FAVORITE ONE IS MISSING. THEY STOLE IT. THEY'RE SHITTY LITTLE THIEVES."

Blossom sets down the tray of cookies — which is now almost empty — and puts her hands on her sister's shoulders. "Hey, calm down. It's just a pumpkin."

Buttercup goes dangerously silent. "That is vandalism. And destruction of personal property. I want their heads on a stick."

"Whoa there friend," Bubbles pipes up from her spot on the counter. She's swinging her legs over the edge. "They're just kids. It's a harmless prank."

"Yeah well, why can't they stick to egging houses and wasting toilet paper?"

x

A half hour later, after everyone has thoroughly enjoyed several of Blossom's array of pumpkin dishes, there's the same dull thud against the kitchen window. Buttercup is livid, and Blossom is starting to get suspicious.

"THEY'VE DONE IT AGAIN BLOSSOM," Buttercup screeches as they stand outside, surveying the damage. "LOOK AT THIS MESS."

Butch snickers. "You sound like a grumpy old man."

"YOU'RE ABOUT TO BE ONE."

Bubbles pouts and picks up a piece of pumpkin shell. "Aww, this was one of mine. See the glitter? They killed Mr. Pickles."

Brick stands there and silently questions everything in his life. Especially the youngest Utonium's choice of names.

x

Not even fifteen minutes later, the same thing happens again. Only this time it's against the dining room window.

Predictably, Buttercup storms outside with her sleeves pushed up to her elbows and a bone to pick with the terrors they call their neighbors' children. Butch tags along behind her because this is the greatest source of entertainment he's ever had.

But they do not, in fact, find the culprits.

Instead, they find a trail.

Of smashed pumpkins.

"I'm gonna catch those little fuckers and make them _wish_ they'd never gone trick or treating," Buttercup swears, and sets out to follow the path. The others have no choice but to follow. (Well, they do, but. Blossom needs to be there for damage control, Butch thinks this is the funniest thing he's ever seen in his life, Bubbles is worried, Boomer goes wherever Bubbles goes, and Brick has nothing better to do).

It leads to an old cemetery in a deep part of the woods that none of them even knew existed.

"Well there's no way this could go wrong," Butch comments sarcastically as Buttercup crashes through the underbrush.

x

"Buttercup, could you _please_ be a little more...subtle?" Blossom asks desperately as the green Powerpuff stomps through bushes and weeds.

"C'mon Bloss, this is Buttercup we're talking about. 'Subtle' isn't in her vocabulary." Bubbles jokes, trying to ease the tension. Butch snorts a laugh and Buttercup stops to glare at her sister.

" _Hey_."

"What are they even trying to do?" Boomer butts in. "I don't get it. Why bring us to some old cemetery?"

"Which, by the way, I had no idea even existed in the first place. It's in the middle of fucking nowhere." Butch comments.

"Language." Blossom reprimands.

"I don't know, and I don't care." Buttercup says, somewhat viciously. "Those little shits are gonna pay for destroying my pumpkins. And they fucking took my favorite one, dammit!"

Blossom rubs her brow and Brick rolls his eyes.

"Buttercup, just calm down, okay? I'm sure we'll find whoever did this and -" The redhead is abruptly cut off by a high-pitched cackle. Immediately, all eyes go to Butch. He holds up his hands.

"Hey, that wasn't me! I don't sound like some goddamn _hyena_ , jeez." Blossom's mutter of 'language' is ignored, like usual. However, Buttercup instantly goes on another dinosaur-imitating rampage.

"YOU ASSHOLES, COME OUT WHERE I CAN SEE YOU. YOU'RE GONNA FUCKING PAY FOR KILLING ALL MY DAMN JACK-O-LANTERNS." She sets off again, breaking through the thicket and fully into the old cemetery.

"Buttercup, _be careful_!" Blossom hisses, going after her. Butch is right behind her, silently snickering, and the blondes follow behind. Bubbles is holding onto her boyfriend's arm tightly. Brick brings up the rear, hands in his pockets and a somewhat exasperated expression on his face.

Once the six are in the cemetery, the pumpkin trail ends. They take in their surroundings.

The cemetery is a decent size, but it's unkempt, with uneven grass and weeds poking up. There are gravestones of all sorts of shapes and sizes in crooked rows, some of them crumbling or tilted at haphazard angles. Most of them are so old their engravings are unreadable. The full moon shines overhead, but dark clouds are starting to gather in the distance. There's a slight breeze, which rustles the leaves on the trees around them.

"Creepy..." Bubbles mumbles, shifting closer to Boomer. Buttercup is in a defensive stance, feet spread and fists clenched at her sides.

"COME ON OUT, YOU JERKS. I'LL SHOW YOU WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU FUCK WITH MY STUFF."

"Buttercup." Blossom says, eyeing the cemetery around them. "I don't think -" Just like before, she's cut off by a maniacal laugh. It echoes around them and Bubbles whimpers. Buttercup remains where she is, but her shoulders tense.

"Shit..." Butch says under his breath. "I knew this wouldn't be good."

"Buttercup." Blossom states, her voice firm. She's in leader mode. "We're leaving. _Now_."

After a moment, Buttercup reluctantly turns, but then a new presence makes itself known.

"Leaving so soon, are we?" A voice, the same one that had laughed, says. One moment, the air in front of them is empty, the next, something just _appears_. Bubbles lets out a shriek and Buttercup jumps back, Butch pulling her close to him to get her away from the thing.  
Brick tenses and steps forward, closer to Blossom.

Her eyes are wide and her face is pale. Her breath is starting to fog in front of her. Why is it doing that? Why do her fingers suddenly feel numb?

The _thing_ in front of them is tall, taller than Brick. It's wearing a long purple coat with shiny black buttons, and black pants over impossibly skinny legs. Clean black pointed shoes are on its feet. The whole being is thin, too thin to be human. It almost looks like a stick figure. Its limbs are long, but the most eye-catching thing about it is its head.

Which so happens to be Buttercup's favorite jack-o-lantern.

"You're the one who smashed all my pumpkins!" Buttercup exclaims angrily. The creepy pumpkin-head-man smiles impossibly wide. It's a disturbing sight.

"Yes, I did." It laughs again, the sound irritating, much like the cackle of a hyena, as Butch pointed out. "...You could say I _jacked_ your jack-o-lanterns!" The figure laughs even harder, and Bubbles and Boomer cringe. Brick scowls at it and Butch slaps a hand to his forehead and drags it down his face.

"Aw come on!" He groans. "The only thing _worse_ than a creepy guy with a jack-o-lantern for a head is a fucking creepy guy with a jack-o-lantern for a head _who makes puns_. God, it wasn't even that _funny_." Buttercup's frown twists into a smirk and she elbows Butch.

"Yeah, he's not all he's _jacked_ up to be!" She says, wiggling her eyebrows.

"Pffft, ohmy _god_ Sunshine, you did _not_ just say that!" Butch guffaws as Buttercup tries to stifle her laughs. Even Bubbles can't help it; she lets out a few giggles. Boomer cracks a smile, and Brick again questions his entire existence.

The figure however, is entirely unaffected by the joke made about it. Instead, it's focusing on Blossom. It leans forward slightly and holds out a white gloved hand to her. She swallows thickly.

"James A. Wisenton, at your service, madam." It smiles too widely again, and a knot forms in Brick's stomach. Blossom glances at the hand, then up at its face, and finally, seeing no other option and not wanting to anger it, lightly touches her fingers to his. She quickly draws back, unsure, but the jack-head just keeps smiling.

"My, what a pretty, pretty specimen _you_ are, madam." It says, circling around Blossom. Her hands start to shake. Buttercup and Butch finally notice what's going on, and the smiles drop from their faces.

"Hey, leave her alone!" Buttercup demands, stepping towards it. The pumpkin man stops in front of Blossom again, still smiling. Brick wants to wipe the smile off his face. And then smash the pumpkin on the ground for good measure.

"Who are you, anyway?" Butch questions, looking at the figure dubiously. It turns its unwavering yellow gaze from Blossom and she sags a bit in relief. Brick goes to her side.

"I'm the headless horseman!" It exclaims with a flourish of arms, popping it's head clean off his shoulders and holding the pumpkin in his hands. Bubbles lets out a short scream and Boomer holds her tight. Buttercup looks weirded out and Butch just stares.

It places its head back on its shoulders and looks at Blossom again.

"And you are going to be my bride!"

x

"Bride? What the fuck are you talking about?" Brick says heatedly, stepping in front of Blossom. The headless horseman's smile falters for a millisecond before reappearing.

"What else? She's the prettiest one here, so she's going to be my bride!" He motions to Blossom, who looks like she's in between yelling in this guy's face or fainting. This...headless horseman guy, wants to _marry her_? Oh hell no.

"Like hell she is." Buttercup snarls, anger flaring. Butch looks taken aback.

" _She's_ the prettiest? What am I, chopped liver or something?" The horseman regards Butch with not so much of a smile.

"I will not marry you." It states. Now Butch looks downright offended.

"Well, ex-cuuuse _me_ , Your Royal Highness." He sasses. "You're missing out. _I'm_ obviously the prettiest one here - no offense Blossom - and if you can't see that, then you're blind." He tosses his head, flipping imaginary hair. "It's probably better if you don't see me for how great I am anyway. You wouldn't be able to handle me at my _worst_ , so you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best. I need someone who knows just how amazing of a catch I am. I mean, let's be real, just look at me." He gestures to himself and Buttercup snaps.

"BUTCH IS THIS REALLY THE TIME FOR THIS?" She yells at him. He blinks at her. Brick wants to rip out his hair. Blossom is still fixated on the figure who wants to marry her, of all things.

Brick looks at the jack-o-lantern, ignoring Butch and Buttercup arguing in the background.

"Sorry, I don't think Blossom's up for any weddings to you at the moment. Or _ever_." This time, the horseman's smile really does disappear. A whole new aura forms.

If his last aura unsettled them, then this one downright petrifies them.

He seems to grow in size, looming over them, and his bright yellow eyes get even brighter, his mouth stretching and teeth becoming sharper and more pronounced. His fingers, though covered in the gloves, sharpen to points and he _radiates_ darkness and anger.

Buttercup and Butch fall quiet.

"Is that so?" He asks. Blossom clutches at the sleeve of Brick's long sleeve shirt. It sounds like three people are talking at once. "Mortal, I think it's time you stop interfering with my plans. You don't want to cross me." Brick sneers.

"What are you gonna do, smash another pumpkin?"

"Brick, don't -" Bubbles tries to warn him, but it's too late.

"What am I going to _do_? Oh, I'll show you, pest." The horseman spits. Suddenly, he leaves the ground, flying up and over their heads, and landing behind them. Before anyone can react, his sharp claws close around Blossom's waist and she's ripped away from Brick.

"BRICK!" She screams, right before she's enveloped in the horseman's black aura and both her and the pumpkin head are gone.

x

"BLOSSOM!"

Buttercup takes a defensive stance immediately, clenching her fists and snarling. "Give her back," she growls. "Give her _back_!"

Bubbles' hand is clamped firmly over her mouth and her eyes are wide, Boomer close by her side. Brick slams his fist into a nearby tree.

"We have to find her."

"No shit, Sherlock," Buttercup bites. "If...if that—that _thing_ does anything to her, so help me..."

Her eyes glow a bright green, just as Brick's darken.

Bubbles feels her skin crawl, and she desperately rubs at her arms. The moon hanging over the cemetery is full, and after being mostly hidden by clouds the past half hour, has turned an ugly bright yellow. There's a fog rolling through the cemetery and pooling at their feet, and she can still hear the awful laugh of the horseman echoing off the tombstones.

Butch steps over a broken grave carefully. "This place is a fucking mess. How're we ever going to find anything?"

Boomer sends him a sideways look that says that maybe he should just keep quiet. If Buttercup is tense, Brick's muscles must have locked up by now. Bubbles is nervously tugging be on the end of her sweater and carefully checking behind trees and other things.

They search in what is mostly silence, save for the occasionally call of an owl, or the distant sounds of coyotes laughing. It's downright eerie.

"This is all my fault," Buttercup mutters to herself. "If I hadn't lost it over fucking _pumpkins_ , of all things, then we wouldn't even be here right now. Blossom would be okay. This is my fault."

Her sister, the commander and leader, whom she loves very much despite the fact that they're always butting heads. She's in trouble now and everything is Buttercup's fault. She's the one to blame. What if something's happens to her? No. No no no no.

She tries not to picture Blossom...not alive anymore when they find her. There's so much blood, her eyes are halfway lidded, staring into nothing. Her lips are parted in an unheard, unreleased scream.

This isn't anything they've dealt with before. This is insanity.

"Hey guys," Bubbles' voice comes over from the middle of the cemetery. "Look at this." She's staring up at an old, decrepit stone statue. It's of a man riding a horse that is reading up on its hind legs. The strangest part?

It has no head.

Butch makes a face and takes a step away. "You think that it just broke off with age, or...?"

Boomer is kneeling in front of a nearby tombstone, tearing away vines and brushing dead leaves out of the way. He reads and rereads the inscription three times; just to make sure it's correct. It's barely visible anymore, after all.

"It's him," He breathes. "The headless horseman guy. I mean, it doesn't say that this is his grave _specifically_ , but—"

Brick falls to his knees by his youngest brother and puts a hand on the stone. It says something about a curse and a headless horseman and not to wake him. It's a fucking rhyme on an epitaph. Of course.

Bubbles is fidgeting near the statue one moment, and then there's a scream. When the others turn to look at her, she's gone. Boomer instantly becomes frantic, and Buttercup is ready to burn the entire place to the ground.

"We gotta find her," Boomer is saying to Brick as Butch squints at the faded etching in the stone. It's been hundreds of years since it was first made, and it makes him feel like he needs glasses.

While the other three are arguing about looking for the perky blonde, he stares at the tombstone.

"I think we need to dig."

Buttercup turns to him. "What."

He gestures wildly to the burial plot. "The words say something about digging to find the source of the curse or whatever the fuck, right? I think it's being, whadaya call it? Literal. We want to find that headless bastard? We dig."

"That...actually makes sense."

His brothers and Buttercup get down on their knees beside him and they begin to claw away the dirt with their hands. They're looking for...what are they looking for?

Buttercup lets out a shriek when the earth caves beneath them and falls away, leaving them to fall with it. They hit the ground within a few seconds, and when she looks up, the night sky is probably fifteen or so feet above them.

Butch groans. Loudly. "We fell through the fucking earth."

"We're in a grave," Boomer mumbles, looking a mix between worried and very, very creeped out.

Brick stands up and glances around. "I don't think so. This is some kind of cavern or something. You see any dead bodies?"

Boomer is busy staring at a skeleton with its jaw open so wide it look unnatural. "Yes."

"This has to be where that fucker is keeping Blossom," Buttercup mumbles. "And maybe where Bubbles disappeared to."

The cavern stretches both ways, leaving them with no clue as to which way to take.

"Well gang," Butch tries to joke, "Let's split up. Sunshine 'n I'll take the right, you two take the left. Remember, scream if you need anything."

Boomer scowls at his brother. "Funny."

"We should do it," Brick says, "We don't have much time. It'll be easier to cover more ground this way."

Buttercup refrains from saying that in Scooby Doo, the monster always shows up after the Mystery Crew breaks apart. She watches as Brick and Boomer turn and head into the dark tunnel ahead of them.

"Come on loser, we're gonna find Blossom and Blondie before those two and then all of us are going to get the hell out of here."

For what is probably the first time in her life, she hopes that Butch is right.

x

"Mmmf!" Blossom tries talking past the gag in her mouth, but she's unsuccessful. Her hands are chained together behind her back and her legs are tied together from the knee down with thick metal chains. She tried burning through them with her lasers, but it didn't work, for some reason. The metal hadn't melted. She's seated on a...throne? Of some sort? It's a large stone chair facing the rest of the large marble room. How'd the headless horseman even _build_ all this? Did he have little pumpkin minions they don't know about?

"Ah, my bride-to-be!" Said headless man strode into the room, looking in a considerably better mood, probably because she's now trapped here. "I do apologize for having to whisk you away from all that, but...that _boy_ was getting in the way, and we can't have that." By the way he bites out 'boy', Blossom guesses he's talking about Brick.

 _Where are the others now? Are they okay?_ Blossom wriggles around, trying to loosen her bonds. He walks closer.

"It's no point struggling, my dear. Those chains are impenetrable. You won't be going anywhere, at least until the wedding!" He claps his hands and smiles delightedly. Blossom feels like she's going to hurl.

The temperature of the room is that awful hot-and-cold-at-the-same-time, making her fidgety and uncomfortable. The air feels electric, as if she's going to get zapped any second. For all she knows, she might be.

She hopes they get here soon.

x

Bubbles really has no idea what she's doing.

She's currently tip-toeing down an underground tunnel, hopefully towards her sister and the headless horseman. Her hands fist when she thinks about him.

 _Who does that creep think he is anyway?! Just whooshing away with Blossom like that! Talk about rude! No respectable man abducted the woman he wanted to marry! ...Then again, this is a cursed guy with a pumpkin for a head. And it wasn't even a colorful pumpkin! Mr. Pickles had way more..._ liveliness _, than Buttercup's! I used glitter on him, for Pete's sake! Not that I'd ever tell Buttercup that, but still! Creepy pumpkins for heads was_ so _last Halloween._

She's pulled from her thoughts (rambling?) as she stumbles upon a set of large wooden doors. They look fancy, and sturdy.

 _Should I blast through them? No, that would draw too much attention. But does Blossom need a distraction? Is she okay? Did the horseman guy hurt her?_

"...those chains are impenetrable." Glancing around to make sure no one's coming, Bubbles presses her ear against the door to listen. "You won't be going anywhere, at least until the wedding!" Her eyebrows furrow.

 _That's another thing! There shouldn't even_ be _a wedding! And with the_ headless horseman _, of all people! If Blossom's getting married to anyone, it's going to be Brick. (Don't tell Blossom I said that.)_

"I've already started planning! We wed tonight, as soon as possible!" The crazy pumpkin exclaims. There's muffled noises; that must be Blossom!

"That creep must have her tied up..." She says under her breath.

"I must go continue the preparations for the ancient ceremony. Back soon, my dear!" Footsteps sound through the door, but they disappear in a different direction. So there must be more than one entryway inside.  
 _  
Now's my chance! I can bust in there and get Blossom out so we can find the others and go home!_

Bubbles steps back from the doors and examines them. She needs enough force to break through them, but not destroy them completely. That would make too much noise.

She raises her leg and gives the doors a solid, well-placed kick. They swing open, revealing a large marble room with a throne of gray rock in the center. On the throne is Blossom, wide-eyed and tied up.

"Blossom!" Bubbles squeals, rushing over and hugging her tightly. "I was so worried! Are you okay?" She takes notice of the gag and quickly rips it off. Blossom sucks in a deep breath.

"Bubbles." She says, smiling. "You're alright. I'm glad. Where's Buttercup? And the boys?" Bubbles frowns.

"I have no idea. We were digging around the headless horseman's grave - apparently he was cursed a really really long time ago, did you know that? Anyway, I fell through some hidden trapdoor and landed in a tunnel. I don't think they know what happened to me. I found those doors though, and I was listening in." She pauses for breath. "Blossom, you _can't_ marry the headless horseman!" Blossom nods, trying to placate her youngest sister.

"Don't worry, Bubbles, I'm not planning on it." She reassures her. "Can you see if you can break my chains? My eye beams aren't working on them." Bubbles nods and sets to work, tugging and pulling at the metal links. She follows Blossom's instructions, trying to find a weak spot or faulty link, but she doesn't see any.

"Bubbles." Blossom says quietly, her tone serious. The blonde instinctively straightens. "Get behind the chair, and stay down." Bubbles doesn't question her sister, doing as she says immediately. She's learned that sometimes it's best not to question her leader.

Not a minute after she crouches down behind the large back of the chair does another door fling open. The headless horseman comes into the room.

"My dear! Did you manage alright without me? I thought I heard voices, was my little fiancé talking to herself?" He practically coos. Bubbles screws up her face in disgust. This guy was awful. Blossom is probably steaming at this point.

"I managed just fine, thank you." She says tartly. Bubbles holds back a grin, silently cheering Blossom on. "In fact, I'd manage even better if you let me go." The horseman tuts.

"Now, now, no need to get snippy. You and I are going to be married soon, after all." Blossom doesn't respond, but Bubbles can picture the look on her face. Bubbles herself is starting to grow annoyed at this cursed pumpkin. She curls up even more, hiding as best she can. Blossom keeps refuting the horseman's advances with smart remarks and sassy comebacks.

Finally, the horseman snaps. There's a sharp slap and Blossom gasps. Bubbles has to stuff her hand over her mouth to keep from gasping loudly herself.

The headless horseman just slapped her sister.

"ENOUGH!" He roars, shaking the room. Both girls jump, and Bubbles' eyes are wide. "DO NOT TEST ME ANY LONGER."

x

There's a harsh stinging sensation on her left cheek, where he slapped her. Against her will, Blossom pales. Yellow smoke escapes the horseman's eyes, and his mouth is turned down in a snarl.

"I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF YOUR CHEEK! YOU WILL _OBEY_ ME, YOU SENSELESS GIRL." Blossom shudders in her seat, eyes flicking downwards and away from the savage spirit. Maybe she had gone too far.

 _No_ , she chastises herself. _This is good. He's yelling, drawing attention. Hopefully, the others hear him. Plus, Bubbles is with me now. I have to keep him from discovering her.  
_  
Her resolve strengthened, she raises her gaze to meet his once more. Anger still radiates from the horseman in waves, but she holds steady.

"And why should I?" She retorts. "You don't even have a brain. Your head is a hollow _pumpkin_." She sneers at him, making the insulting tone obvious.

He slaps her again.

At this point she knows there's going to be a huge bruise. She squints her eyes against the biting pain in her face.

"HOW DARE YOU! YOU FORGET YOUR PLACE." The horseman barks out. His voice is amplified, echoing around her, and she feels a small prickle of fear.

 _What if this doesn't work? What if they don't hear the horseman? What if they can't find Bubbles and I?_

x

" _Ouch_ , watch where you're going, asshole."

"I can't! Because I can't fucking _see_!"

Buttercup and Butch grope blindly through the dark. They'd lost any source of light after separating from Boomer and Johnny Blaze, and had been trying to find their way down the corridor since then. It hasn't been great.

Buttercup takes a step, only to find that there is no step. "Holy FU—"

She flails, and pitches forward into empty space.

Butch has his arms out in front of him and is waving them around trying to locate his counterpart. There's a muted 'bang' that cuts off her scream, and after that, nothing.

"Hey Sunshine, did you fall and break your face?"

No response.

"Yo, we got things to be doing here. It's not a great time for a nap."

Nothing.

"Buttercup? Hey," He calls out, a bit of insane panic bleeding through his voice, "Answer me."

 _Did something happen to her? Did she just disappear like Bubbles? Right out from under me while I didn't even know she was in trouble?_ He grits his teeth. _It's so fucking dark, I can't even_ see _anything._

"Holy shit, that hurt like a bitch."

All of the air in Butch's lungs suddenly returns when he hears her mumbled groan coming from somewhere below.

"What the hell happened?" He demands, slightly pissed off that she didn't answer him before.

Buttercup doesn't even sound that far away when she replies. "I just tripped down what I'm pretty sure is a flight of stairs. Be careful, it isn't much fun."

Butch tests out the ground in front of him and discovers that she's right, there is a staircase down here. _Weird._ Carefully, he descends a couple of feet until there doesn't appear to be any more steps.

Suddenly, Buttercup groans. The next thing he knows, her right fist is glowing a lime green color. She sends him a half annoyed, half sheepish look. "I didn't think of it until just now."

He holds up his hands. "Just watch where you swing that thing. And don't fire."

"Do you think I'm an idiot?"

"Well—"

"Finish that sentence and I _will_ fry you."

He closes his mouth and looks around... _is this a room? Something about the stone floor feels weird._

Buttercup squints. "Hang on, I think I see something."

She floats over to a stone pillar and carefully sets it on fire? As soon as the electric green energy from her hand touches the thing, it sets off a chain reaction. Suddenly the whole room is alight with burning torches, and the two are bathed in an eerie green color because of her powers.

"Freaky," Butch comments.

Buttercup is frowning at the floor, and he raises a brow when she crouches down to get a closer look. She drags a finger along the stone, and gives him a troubled glance.

"Hey douchebag, go back up the stairs and look down at the floor."

He crosses his arms. "And why should I?"

She scowls at him. "Just fucking do it."

Butch complies, and it's much easier to climb stairs when you can see. No matter how eerie your lighting is. His brows furrow when he glances down over the room, Buttercup kneeling near the middle.

"Well?" She asks impatiently. "Out with it."

He looks at her. "Well, I might be wrong considering I'm not an expert in witchcraft, but."

Buttercup's expression is incredulous. "What are you on about?"

"Either you're standing in the middle of a really freaky maze, or I'm looking at a pentagram."

x

"Did you know," Boomer mumbles as he and Brick make their way towards what is hopefully Blossom and Bubbles, "That I've just discovered I don't like pumpkins so much anymore. I'll never be able to look at a jack-o-lantern the same way again, man."

Brick doesn't say a word, and Boomer sighs before rubbing his arms. "It's cold down here."

"I can set you on fire if you want."

The blond makes a face. "No, I'm good. Thanks."

They make their way in silence, their only companion the flame dancing in Brick's hand. Boomer wonders if Bubbles is alright. Maybe she's already found Blossom and they're out of this crazy place. He's about to say something when a voice cuts him off. Brick stops so fast that Boomer almost collides with him. It's oddly quiet again, then—

There. It's coming from a little further down the hall. It sounds angry, and disturbingly familiar.

It belongs to the headless horseman.

x

Brick and Boomer glance into the lit room from behind the doors. Blossom is chained to a throne? There's a nasty mark on her cheek that's turning black and blue, and the horseman's hand is raised again to strike. It does not, however, make contact with her skin. Instead, the being crashes into the wall, along with Brick.

The other door creaks open and a wide-eyed Blossom stares in disbelief at a sheepish-looking Boomer. He waves awkwardly.

"We're here to uh, save you?"

Brick and the pumpkin guy are rolling around on the floor, one screaming about mortal insolence and the other throwing obscenities left and right, along with fists. Boomer glances around for something helpful, and his gaze catches something glinting in the light.

"Brick!" The redhead turns at the sound of his name, dodging a swipe from the horseman, and catches the sword his blond brother tosses his way.

He rounds on the horseman, who is coming towards him with remarkable speed. Brick swings the blade and its head comes clean off.

Everyone else cringes as smashed pumpkin splatters the surrounding room. Boomer does an awkward little dance as he chants "Ew, ew," over and over when some lands in his hair.

Brick drops the blade and turns to Blossom, who is staring at him with wide eyes. "What—"

x

Bubbles can't see what's happening, but suddenly, an awful feeling swells in her chest. It feels like death, like the last breath leaving the body, the last wishes being unfulfilled. She feels the pain, the suffering, the agony.

And then.

She feels it bubbling in her chest, rising up her throat, and—

Bubbles opens her mouth and _screams_.

x

Not five seconds later, Brick suddenly jerks to a halt.

Something warm drips down from his mouth and splatters onto the floor. Slowly, painfully, he looks down at his chest.

 _Oh._

x

" _BRICK!_ "

x

"Why is there a fucking pentagram on the floor." Butch asks, eyes wide. Buttercup quickly removes herself from said pentagram, and is currently looking around the room. It's downright spooky. There's a table against one wall with all sorts of glass beakers and colored liquids and metal contraptions spread across it.

Now, Buttercup grew up with a science lab for a basement, but she has absolutely _no_ idea what any of that is. She's not sure she wants to know.

Against another wall is a large bookshelf, full of different books of all shapes and sizes and colors. It's not organized in the least, and if Blossom saw it then she'd probably have a heart attack.

And it doesn't help that there's a pentagram in the middle of the floor and Buttercup's green light is bathing the room.

Butch descends the stairs again, scooting around the pentagram and coming to her side. A small stack of thick books by one of the table legs catches her attention. She walks over, Butch watching her curiously. She picks up the first book in the stack - a black one with red designs - and flips it open. The pages show diagrams of pentagrams and ritual requirements. She turns a couple pages then closes it and sets the book down. Butch comes over and kneels next to her, looking over her shoulder.

She picks up the next book in the stack - this one an old, faded blue - and opens it. After a minute of reading she gasps, straightening in her position. She snatches the pentagram book and opens it to the marked page, setting it down on the floor in front of her and Butch. Then, she takes the blue book she just opened and puts it down beside the black and red one.

"Look at this," She says, pointing. "This book -" She gestures to the blue one. "- is a book on the headless horseman. You know how his gravestone or whatever said he was cursed? Well this book, it explains how to get rid of it." Butch's eyebrows rise in shock. Buttercup continues, eyes glued to the blue book.

"It says here that a witch cast a spell on him because of his vanity, 300 years ago. She cursed him so that he may never have a proper head again, so he can't charm people anymore with his looks." Her eyes skim the pages as she explains. "But here, it goes on to say that he starting dealing in dark magic, and he used it to gain more power. He went through some type of transformation, and his altered form was so terrifying that when a person took one look at him, they died of fright." She pauses.

"Like fucking Medusa..." Butch mutters, and his counterpart nods in agreement.

"Anyway, the same witch who originally cursed him came back, and added onto the original curse. She restricted his magic and forced him into a lesser form, her spell keeping him from gaining back his ultimate form and magic power." She's silent for a few seconds, reading forward. "Okay, here's where it gets freaky. No magic is perfect; every spell has some sort of counter, or loophole. The witch's curse _can_ be broken, but it's wicked hard. You only get one shot." She's quiet again. "The book says that the only way to break the horseman's curse is if he marries a mortal girl on the eve of his death...but when did he die?" She mumbles the last part, flipping back a few pages but still keeping her finger in her place. "...Here it is! The horseman died...on the 31st of October..." She looks up at Butch, eyebrows furrowed. "He was talking about a bride earlier...before he kidnapped -" She stops, and her eyes widen as the information clicks.

"Son of a bitch." Butch breathes out, coming to the same conclusion. "He's planning on marrying Blossom."

"Not on my watch." Buttercup growls. She starts flipping and skimming more pages. "Come on, there's gotta be _something_ that can help us in here! How do we stop him?" While she's going through the blue book, Butch picks up the next one in the pile, a green one with vines and trees embroidered on the leather cover. He opens it and begins to read.

"Hey Sunshine..." He says off-handedly. "I think I found something." Buttercup abandons her search and rises to her knees, leaning on his shoulder as she reads the book he has in his hands.

"Didn't you say you're more...'in tune' with nature or something?" He questions. Buttercup nods slowly, though her gaze doesn't leave the page.

"So...I'm thinking you might be one of the three people needed to kill this fucker." Buttercup takes the book from his hands, lips moving as she reads the passages. And then reads them again. She looks up.

"This is it. This is how we can stop him." She declares. "It's going to sound crazy -"

"At this point, I don't think _anything_ can surprise me." Butch interrupts, making her roll her eyes.

"- As I was saying. It sounds crazy, but I think I'm...the green witch." She reads from the book. " _The green witch: a practitioner of witchcraft whose focus is on the use of natural items and places. The goal of the green witch is upon achieving magic through communion with Mother Nature and using her energies. They can also borrow energies from other entities if needed in battle._ "

"Sounds legit. As long as you don't start going around trying to kill girls with red sparkly shoes, I'm down." Butch nods. Buttercup suppresses another eye roll and goes back to the book.

"Okay, so. The witch is needed to seal the horseman and his powers away for good, but they need help from two other...supernatural, beings. Those other two have to distract the horseman so the witch can recite the spell needed to lock away the dark magic." Buttercup squints as she reads further. "The witch has to be strong - both physically and mentally - and also has to possess true power. Their bloodline must be pure and their intentions good, or else the magic won't work and the horseman will never be fully destroyed."

"Talk about pressure." Butch comments. Buttercup glares at him briefly.

"Um, so now all we need to do is find the book with the spell in it..." She says, looking around. "Let's start looking." She gets to her feet and heads toward the bookshelf.

"What exactly are we looking for?" Butch asks her, standing up and dusting off his jeans.

"The book's going to be really old and really big. It's probably gonna be black, the pages yellow-ish. Just think: something that screams 'spellbook'."

They search for a full ten minutes before they find it.

"Butterfly, check this out!" Butch says excitedly, pulling out a book form the top shelf. He shows it to her. "If this doesn't say 'spellbook', I don't know what does." It's a heavy book as long as her forearm, inky black in color with fancy silver embroidery. The pages are aged and stiff when she opens it.

"Nice job dumbass." She says, but the name doesn't have its usual bite. Buttercup's too busy reading the spell she needs to perform.

"We've gotta find the others." She says after she finishes, snapping the book shut and holding it under her arm. "There's no way I'm letting my sister get married to that freak of nature."

"Technically, _you're_ the nature freak, Butters." Butch teases with a smirk. Buttercup just punches his shoulder and sends him a glare.

"Let's go, numb nuts. We've got siblings to save." She begins to walk to the stairs, and Butch's smirk widens as he follows her.

They're halfway up the stairs when they hear the scream.

x

" _BRICK!_ " Blossom screams, right after Bubbles. "BRICK, _NO_ -" And she's straining against the chains, eyes frantic and tears already making their way down her cheeks. Bubbles is out from behind the throne, curled up in a ball with her head in her hands. Her eyes are shut tight and she's shaking violently. Boomer is torn between comforting bubbles and going to his brother.

Brick must see his hesitation, because even in his current state, he looks at his youngest brother and flicks his eyes towards Bubbles, a silent message to help his girlfriend.

"Brick..." Boomer trails off, eyes lost. Brick gives the tiniest shake of his head, and the corner of his lips quirk up into the smallest of smiles. He looks at Boomer again, then at Bubbles, repeating the message. Boomer reluctantly obeys, going to the other blonde and pulling her into his lap protectively, whispering in her ear. He's completely focused on calming her down. Luckily, the headless horseman doesn't pay attention to him and Bubbles.

Brick falls to his knees, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. His shirt is soaked now, and the sword is still lodged in his chest, restricting the blood flow, if only a little bit.

Blossom's tugging and pulling and scratching at her chains, hysterical.

"Brick, please no, nonono, this can't be happening -" Her voice is wobbly and thick with tears. She sees his shoulders droop. "No no _no_ , you CAN'T DIE BRICK, DON'T YOU DARE DIE YOU JERK."

The horseman laughs spitefully. Well, he's really headless now.

"You insubordinate mortal. You are no match for me." He says, contempt in his voice though he has no head. "You shouldn't have taken on the headless horseman; now you pay the ultimate price: your life."

Blossom can't breathe. She can barely see past her tears, and her heart is thumping so loud against her ribcage she's surprised the others can't hear it. Her wrists are aching, she's pretty sure the chains have taken off some skin, and her right calf is numb. But she couldn't care less about that. What she cares about is Brick, and right now he's fifteen feet away from her and _bleeding out onto the floor_.

And she can't do a single thing about it.

And that stupid headless horseman is _still laughing_.

Blossom's eyes are zeroed in on her arrogant, pompous counterpart (whom she may have very strong feelings for) as he struggles to keep his eyes open. His blood is _everywhere_.

"B-Brick," She stutters. "D-Don't...don't close your eyes. I'm serious. Don't even _think_ about closing them." She pulls at her restraints once more. She can't get to him.

Brick's lips are moving, but no sound comes out. Instead, he coughs up a mouthful of crimson blood, the same color as his eyes. Blossom's heart skips unpleasantly.

"Brick." She warns, hysteria creeping into her voice. "Brick, _listen to me_. You can't die. You _can't_. Don't you even try giving up, I mean it. Fight it, Brick. Fight it!" For a moment, it looks like he hears her. It looks like he's trying to fight, and Blossom feels a tiny, tiny bit of hope.

And then the horseman yanks the sword from Brick's back.

Brick's eyes widen a fraction and he chokes, blood spattering in front of him. That tiny bit of hope vanishes as quickly as it had formed.

"No, Brick, _NO!_ " Blossom shrieks as he slumps to the floor. He's on his back, blood pooling beneath him, and he turns his head to look at her.

She meets his eyes, and for a moment, everything stops. And then, Brick's eyes close and his chest falls.

Blossom's eyes are wide and unblinking, and her breath rushes out of her lungs.

He's not moving.

He's _not moving_.

Brick is dead.

Violent sobs wrack her body and Blossom falls to her knees, still chained. Her arms hang behind her and her head tilts forward, hair reaching to the floor and curtaining her face. She kneels over, her chest touching her thighs, and _cries_.

Bubbles weeps into Boomer's chest, not as furiously as her sister, but still distraught.

Boomer cries too.

x

"Now," The horseman hisses in displeasure, "To take care of the others."

He turns to a crying Bubbles, whose eyes are shut tightly, and Boomer, the boy with red-rimmed eyes who just lost his oldest brother. He looks up at the horseman and pulls the smaller blonde close, ready and more than willing to get bloody if it means protecting her.

The headless being moves closer, but is stopped by something.

Blossom's chest is heaving, her head still hanging down, hair like a curtain around her. Her body is limp against the chains holding her up, and they clink as she starts to shake. The air abruptly changes—it becomes colder, uncomfortable, almost suffocating. She barely lifts her head to look him in the eyes.

There's something unnerving there, be it her hysteria or the inner turmoil of her emotions, but there's something else to, something—

Blossom throws her head back, body tense, and _screams_.

Ice starts to spread across her chains, the walk, behind her, under her feet. It freezes everything in its wake, including the horseman's feet to the floor. Several sharp shards embed themselves in the other side of the wall, across the room. The ice doesn't stop until she lowers her head, and in one graceful and effortless moment, breaks her chains.  
They clatter to the floor, and the upper half of her body falls forward a bit. It's completely silent, save for her labored breathing and the sounds of Bubbles crying.

Then, she looks up, right to where the horseman's head would be. Her eyes are glowing an unearthly pink, staring straight through his soul.

He recoils, but doesn't get far because of the ice encasing his lower half.

"You're no mere mortal girl," He says lowly, dangerously. "And neither is she. There is a banshee in my home, and you...you..."

Blossom takes a step toward him. " _You killed him_."

It holds out a hand. "Stay away from me! Get back!"

She raises her voice, tears gathering under her chin. "YOU KILLED HIM!"

"STAY BACK."

Suddenly, she's in front of him—fast, quiet, deadly. "I will _not_ let you hurt anyone I care about ever again." Her fist collides with his chest, and the sheer force of her punch breaks him out of the ice and sends his body flying across the room. He picks up the sword and they circle one another, each prepared to strike, each anticipating the other's move.

Blossom throws blows faster than he can dodge, but he does land a hit on her side. She falters, the pain blinding, and glances down. Her fingers are spread against her side, palm pressed to the wound. There's blood leaking out and staining her clothes, but she just sets her jaw and freezes it.

He's about to swing again, but something slams into his chest and sends him backwards. A scream echoes off the walls, the sound waves almost visible.

Bubbles is standing again, body trembling but expression set and determined. "Stay away from my sister, you monster."

Her tone is vicious, her eyes cold. Her entire body is rigid, whether it's from the dropped temperature of the cavern, her anger, or something else.

The horseman rises to his feet, sword hanging from his left hand. Blossom braces herself.  
"Kill me," She says. "Come on, KILL ME!"

She doesn't look at the body on the floor, or the blood. "STICK A BLADE IN ME LIKE YOU DID WITH HIM."

He moves to strike, but Bubbles releases another scream that sends him sliding back. Blossom seizes it by the collar of its coat and flips it, the sword narrowly missing her throat.

"KILL ME!"

Blossom is screaming, fists clenched and ready for battle. "KILL ME!"

The horseman's disembodied voice is harsh, spine-tingling. Bodies without heads shouldn't talk. They shouldn't do anything at all. "The Wailing Woman," He spits. "Is in our midst. And I've mistakenly invited one of _you_ ," He turns to blossom, "Into my home. A banshee. One of your kind. The only being still remaining is—"

"A witch."

Buttercup steps out of the shadows, with Butch behind her. She snarls.

"Prepare to die, you son of a bitch."

x

"What? No. Impossible!" The horseman stutters, turning to face Buttercup and Butch. Buttercup is clutching a large black book on her hands...a _familiar_ , large black book.

"No! How did you - you couldn't have -" The horseman is lost for words, and Blossom takes this opportunity to punch him squarely in the gut. He flies backwards a good ten feet, sliding on the floor and clutching his stomach.

" _No!_ You cannot _DEFEAT_ ME! I AM ABOVE YOU, WEAKLINGS." The horseman suddenly exclaims, becoming angry again. He launches forward towards Buttercup, clawed hands outstretched, reaching for the book in her hands. She clutches it to her chest protectively and Butch steps in front of her, arms raised.

"THIS IS FOR KILLING MY BROTHER, DICKFACE." Butch and the horseman crash together, and tumble around on the floor. Butch is cursing the horseman to hell and back, while the headless being is trying to land a solid hit. Butch's hands are green blurs and his eyes are a dark green, almost black with rage.

Bubbles floats over to Buttercup and pulls her sister around the two rolling on the floor. Buttercup and Bubbles stand by Blossom, who is watching the horseman with a set jaw and eyes colder than ice.

Boomer has joined Butch against the horseman, the two actually fighting well together. Their powers are fueled by rage and they drive the horseman back, in the girls' direction.

"You ready?" Buttercup asks, looking at her sisters. Bubbles nods resolutely and they turn to their leader. She squares her shoulders.

"It's time someone put him in his place." She says, her tone as biting as the cold emanating from her skin. Buttercup grins maniacally.

"Hell yeah."

x

"CEASE THIS STUPIDITY." The headless horseman roars. "I AM THROUGH WITH YOUR PETTY, MEANINGLESS LIVES. YOU DIE TONIGHT." He raises his hands, now brandishing the bloody sword.

He rushes Butch and Boomer, and they have no time to react. The blade is swinging down, aimed to cut across the both of them in one sweep. They don't have enough time to _move_.

"BOOMER!" Bubbles shrieks. Buttercup's eyes are wide.

The sword is mere _milliseconds_ away from carving into them when there's a flash of pale pink, almost white, light.

" _No you fucking don't._ " Blossom snarls. Her right arm is outstretched and she leaning forward on her left leg, her eyes bright with the intent to kill.

There, in between the horseman and Butch and Boomer, is a two-inch thick wall of ice.

The bloody sword is embedded in the ice, its motion halted immediately. The headless horseman recoils, letting go of the sword's handle as if it had burned him.

"You..." He turns to Blossom, and she straightens, holding her head high. "No, you are no mere mortal, not at all. I was a fool, why didn't I see it before?" He shudders, glaring at her. "Your kind are the _worst_." Blossom curls her lip at him.

" _Do_ enlighten me, horseman." Her voice drips with venom.

"Yuki-onna." He spits at her, his growing anger evident in his bodiless voice. "Your kind are unnatural, even for the supernatural. Too strong, too fast, too powerful." The temperature around Blossom drops drastically. Her eyes glow pink and she starts to tremble. The horseman stumbles backwards, but he's still angry.

"So much emotion." He taunts. "All because of a stupid, imbecilic, _boy_. You're better off without him. He's better off _dead_." Bubbles gasps, and Buttercup sneers at him.

Blossom lets out a frustrated scream and suddenly, she changes.

Her eyes flash white and her skin turns to _ice_.

She leaps at the horseman and he cries out as she attacks. None of his blows or blocks affect her, simply bouncing off. She cocks her arm back and drives it forward into his ribcage. His feet leave the ground as he meets the wall, the marble cracking behind him. He slides to the floor. Blossom stands above him, fists clenched and eyes narrowed dangerously.

"If you're smart you'll give up." She says, returning to her sisters' sides. They, along with Butch and Boomer, gape at her.

Needless to say, the headless horseman is not smart.

He rises unsteadily, clutching his chest.

"Yuki-onna..." He coughs, disdain in his voice. "'Snow-woman'...wretched girl." Blossom's eyes narrow again. "You...cannot...defeat me." The horseman wheezes, staggering forward. "Even if...you did manage...to trap...me," He slowly composes himself. "You don't have enough...power. Even a...Yuki-onna," He looks at blossom. "Isn't strong enough...alone." Blossom glances away from him, at Buttercup. Her sister's eyes are wide at the revelation. Bubbles looks like she's about to panic again.

Before anyone can move, there's a clap of thunder, so loud the ground shakes.

CRACK.

"Who said she was alone?" A voice says from behind them. They all turn.

Brick is standing in a pool of his own blood, shirtless and missing his hat with a very visible scar on his chest, but very much alive.

x

"W - WHAT?!" The headless horseman howls. "IMPOSSIBLE! _I KILLED YOU._ YOU'RE DEAD." Brick's eyes darken and his fists burst into red flames, which he promptly throws at the horseman, knocking him back onto the floor.

He grins wickedly.

"I'm back motherfuckers."

x

He looks over at Blossom, who in turn, looks like she's seen a ghost. Which, technically, isn't wrong. "Miss me, babe?"

Blossom clenches her fists and her breath gets caught in her throat. "I...we thought..."

"I was dead?" Brick cracks his knuckles. "Been there, done that. A fucking drag. I don't recommend it."

She cannot believe him. Blossom isn't sure whether to cry, scream, run and throw her arms around him, or kill him herself.

"DUDE WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK," Butch practically screeches from across the room, asking the question that's prevalent on everyone's minds. He throws his arms up. "This is some serious bullshit. I want answers ASAP. Buttercup, use some of your witchy powers and make sure he's legit. Ain't no fucking spirit possessing my brother and using his body to kill us all or something."

Buttercup groans. "It doesn't _work_ like that, pencildick. But believe me or not, what from I can feel—"

"—See, freaky witchy shit—"

"— _I will strangle you in your sleep_. As I was saying, from what I can sense, that's Brick. Don't ask me how the hell he came back to life, but."

The horseman hisses at them, and she clutches the book in her arms tighter. "Whatever, we can find out the specifics later. Right now, let's get this son of a bitch."

x

Without a word, both Brick and Blossom turn and charge the now-standing headless horseman. Blossom - still in ice form - shoots long, sharp spears of ice at the horseman, driving him back. The air around Brick is fizzling and his whole body is covered in red flames. They lick the air from the tips of his fingers, his hair, _everywhere_.

He hurls flames at the horseman, and his purple coat actually catches fire. The horseman panics as he frantically pats out the fire, leaving a singed, used-to-be sleeve behind.  
Bubbles swiftly appears behind the horseman, floating a few feet above the ground. He stops in his tracks, trapped in the middle of three supernatural beings. Things aren't looking good.

The banshee is behind him, the Yuki-onna to his left, and the...the _demon_ to his right.

He's stuck.

"You don't want to do this," He tries bribery, as a last resort. "I'm a very powerful being...I could give you things beyond your wildest imaginations...riches, wisdom, power -" Buttercup snorts, cutting him off.

"As if we'd take anything from _you_. You fucking kidnapped Blossom and you killed Brick." She snaps at him.

"We don't need anything from you." Bubbles pipes up, her eyes narrowing.

" _Idiots_ ," He seethes, anger and indignation resurfacing one last time. "You are all simpletons! I am the _headless horseman!_ You cannot defeat me. I'll still come back, I'll still haunt you...you will _never_ escape me."

"Hmph." Blossom cocks her hip to the side and crosses her arms. "'You forget your place.'" She quotes him haughtily. The horseman stops, and if he had eyes, they'd be wide with shock.

"MY PLACE IS ABOVE YOU, MISERABLE GIRL." He yells shrilly. Blossom smirks, and as strange as the expression is on her, Brick finds that he really, _really_ likes it.

"No." She retorts. "You're place is in _hell_." And with that, she kneels down and puts her palms on the floor. Lines of ice streak out from underneath her hands, running around the horseman.

Brick grins darkly and does the same, kneeling on the floor and sending out borders of flames that form around the horseman.

When they're done, the two elements shape a perfect pentagram, with the headless horseman right in the center.

" _NO!_ " He howls, snared between frigid ice and blazing flames. The horseman struggles, trying to break free of the pentagram.

"NOW BUBBLES!" Blossom shouts. The youngest sister nods and closes her eyes, still floating in the air.

She feels it.

She feels all of it. The ancient magic at work. The emotions in the room. The fear, the anger, the hatred, the resolve...but most of all, she feels the upcoming _death_. She opens her eyes, and they shine a vivid light blue.

Then, she screams.

Butch and Boomer immediately wince and cover their ears, but Blossom, Brick, and Buttercup aren't affected. If you look close enough, the sound waves themselves are actually _visible_ , aimed at the cursed being in the pentagram. The sound waves form a cage around him, trapping him, bearing down on him and pushing him towards the floor. Her wails echo around the marble chamber, adding fuel to her fire.

"BUTTERCUP!" Buttercup barely hears Blossom over Bubbles' screaming, but she gets the message.

She opens the time-worn text in her hands and flips to the right page.

And she begins to chant.

As soon as she starts to speak the spell, her eyes become unfocused, and glow almost harshly. Tendrils of green light burst from her chest, snaking down around her body and onto the floor. The tendrils take on the form of vines, and rapidly approach the pentagram, passing Blossom and Brick.

As Buttercup continues the spell, the vines touch the lines of the pentagram. There's a flash of lime green light - Buttercup's magic - and the horseman cries out. The vines invade the inside of the pentagram, crawling up to the headless horseman's shoes and curling around his ankles.

Buttercup keeps chanting, and then, a darker green light is being pulled from Butch's chest. Butch stares at the light coming from him, watching in disbelief as the light travels through the air and goes into Buttercup. Her voice becomes firmer, and her magic flares brighter. The vines keep growing. They loop around the horseman's legs, then around his torso, pinning his arms against him. All the while he's kicking and struggling and cursing and shrieking. But it's no use. The spell is being completed, and there isn't anything he can do about it.

He missed his chance.

The vines coil around his neck, and surprisingly, wrap themselves around him even more. Though there isn't actually a head on his shoulders, the vines wrap around it so it looks like he has an invisible one.

Buttercup's voice gets louder and her chant gets faster.

The vines finally stop, and standing in the middle of the pentagram is what looks like a green mummy. A wave of green light pulses outward from Buttercup's chest, and once it hits the horseman, there's another blinding flash of green light and a teeth-rattling roll of thunder.

The light fades.

Butch doesn't have energy leaking from him and into Buttercup.

Bubbles lands gently on her feet, eyes back to normal.

Buttercup shakes her head to refocus and closes the book with a snap.

Brick straightens up, a smirk lingering on his face and his body no longer on fire.

Blossom sits back on her knees, out of breath and pale but back to normal.

And Boomer just stares in disbelief.

The headless horseman is gone. _Forever_.

x

"I feel like I just experienced an episode of supernatural or something," Boomer mumbles to himself, then shouts, "OKAY. I THINK YOU ALL HAVE SOME EXPLAINING TO DO."

He's even taken up the dad stance. The one with the crossed arms and the raised brow and the disappointment of not knowing what was going on sooner written across his face. Holy crap, he's serious.

Buttercup turns to explain, but something happens.

The spellbook crashes to the floor as she falls forward, body limp. Butch barely catches her before she ends up like the book. She looks up at him—there he is again, with that same concerned look in his eyes that seems so out of place—with weary eyes.

"Oh yeah," She manages, "Apparently a spell like that takes a hella lot out of the caster. Even an experienced witch—which, I am obviously not. At least I didn't die; that was one of the other possibilities. That would'a sucked ass."

" _What_ ," Butch sputters, " _Die?_ You didn't fucking tell me that."

She tries to lift a hand to touch her temple. She can't. "'S like a warning on the back of a medicine bottle. Y'know what I'm talking about, right? Where it tells you all the possible consequences that could potentially happen if you take the medicine. Yeah, well. Apparently the same rule applies to magic. And I didn't tell you because I needed to do this, and you probably would've bitched at me."

"If by 'bitched' you mean talk you out of possibly committing fucking _suicide_ then hell yeah I would've bitched at you," Butch deadpans, voice thick with something.

Buttercup, with some effort, raises her brows. "Since when do you care whether I live or die?"

" _Since when_ —" Butch scoffs, "Since I've been fucking in _love_ with you, Sunshine."

x

Blossom wants to go to Brick, but she can't. She's too exhausted, both mentally and physically, so he kneels beside her instead. She's still unsure of what to do. But first, she puts her hand behind his neck and pulls him down. Blossom, in a possibly lingering moment of brashness, kisses him.

At first, he doesn't react, and she's about to pull away— _oh gosh what have I just done ohno_ —and then.

Brick's fingers ghost over her cheek and his other arm wraps around her waist, pulling her closer, as close as possible. He's warm, warmer than a corpse should be, and her chest heaves again at the memory of him bleeding out before her.

She must be crying again, because suddenly her eyes are wet and the kiss tastes salty and bitter.

"You died," She whispers into his neck when they break apart, a string of saliva between them. Her heart constricts in her chest. "You looked at me and you died."

He brushes away some of her tears and lightly rubs his thumb across her purple bottom lip. She's shivering, probably not used to using so much of her ice power at once. Or maybe it's because of the break in her emotions.

"I'm sorry," He says.

Blossom hugs him, tightly, and closes her eyes. "I can't unsee it. Your blood—" She chokes, "It's everywhere. You died and you were dead but now you're not and—"

"Hey," Brick tilts her head back to look at him. "Hey, listen to me. I'm not leaving again, okay."

Blossom's fingers lightly ghost over the awful scar on his chest, and something burns inside of him. Slowly, she leans down and presses her lips against the gnarled skin. His sharp intake of breath is quite audible.

"Good," She barely whispers against his chest.

She drags her other hand across the burned pentagram on the floor and swallows thickly. Her entire body hurts, she's freezing, and she doesn't really remember much of what happened after she started screaming for Brick to wake up. Blossom leans her head against his bare chest and breathes.

Then.

"Wait a second. Where'd your shirt go?"

x

Bubbles watches as Buttercup's eyes go wide and _come on now, how could she not have noticed it before? Maybe my sister is more of an emotional brick than, well, Brick._

Doubtful, but maybe.

"What?"

"You heard me. I love you. Fuck, Buttercup. I'm not good at this emotional confession shit okay so just—just—" The blonde smiles.

"Let me show you."

Buttercup is barely able to reach up and grasp Butch's collar, but she manages. He kisses her, not like Brick kisses Blossom, but something else entirely.

And maybe, if Buttercup wasn't dazed already, she might be.

x

"STILL WAITING ON THAT EXPLANATION, GUYS. RIGHT NOW SEEMS LIKE A GREAT TIME."

x

"You're an asshole," Buttercup mumbles against his mouth. "Stupid."

Boomer's cry is nothing but white noise or static in the background.

x

Boomer instructs everyone to come closer so he can finally be clued into the series of unfortunate events. Blossom is wobbly on her feet, Buttercup can't stand at all, and Bubbles plops down on the floor beside him. Her hand accidentally touches something wet.

Upon further inspection, it is, in fact, Brick's blood.

She screeches.

Since Buttercup is feeling like she's been "thrown under a fucking train," Butch takes the initiative to explain the situation to his younger brother (and everyone else) because they're the two that know the most about it.

"So first of all," He starts, making wide hand gestures, "Let's go over what we already know and maybe some things we don't. If there's anything missing here, feel more than free to add anything. But raise your damn hand and don't just blurt things out because we're gonna do this all civilized like."

Brick raises his brows, but nobody says anything.

Butch looks at the girl in his arms. "So Sunshine here is a fucking witch apparently. Brick died but miraculously came back from beyond the grave like what the actual fuck man. Blondie is a literal banshee, and Blossom is some permafrost queen with major bi-polar issues. Seriously, she swore. She fucking _swore_. She fucking swore by using the word fucking."

Blossom wrinkles her nose at his language and blushes when Brick turns to give her an incredulous glance.

The middle brother nods. "All cleared up on that? Okay, good. So. Buttercup fell down some stairs and we found a pentagram on the floor, and then there were a bunch of spellbooks just sitting on this bookshelf, right? Like, what the hell. We're underground. This is freaky. And she did some freaky witchy shit and lit a bunch of torches too, by the way. So we're reading these ancient books right—so much dust, I think it's stuck in my eyes man—and Butterbabe here told me that she's always been more tuned into nature or whatever, and I'm like, 'you might be one of the people needed to kill this fucker'. And so she takes the book and reads it and is like, 'you might be fucking right,' and—"

Buttercup finds it within herself to give the mightiest eye roll of her life.

"—then we discovered that she's like this green witch or some shit like that. And that she could cast a spell to destroy that headless dude, so we tried to find you guys and that's when we heard Blossom screaming. And Bubbles screaming. A hella lot of screaming. So then Brick was dead," He has a bit of a hard time saying that part, "And Blossom fucking _lost it_ , man. She was screaming for that headless asshole to kill her over and over again—"

"You _WHAT_ ," Brick shouts, looking at the redhead beside him. Blossom doesn't meet his eyes, and her voice is quiet.

"I...I didn't...I don't..."

x

Blossom fumbles for words, partially because she has no idea what to say and partially because by now her thoughts are all muddled and she can barely form a coherent sentence.

"I don't...remember?" She tries. Brick's expression morphs into his famous 'I-don't-fucking-believe-you-so-tell-me-the-damn-truth-this-instant-or-so-HELP-ME' expression (that is mostly reserved for Butch).

Blossom cringes at his face then lets out an exhausted sigh.

"Honestly, Brick." She says, not meeting his burning gaze. "I don't. I don't remember anything past...well, past becoming the...'permafrost queen', is that what you called me?" She raises an eyebrow at Butch and he nods. A few seconds later and Blossom speaks up again.

"I swore?" She questions half horrified and half confused. Buttercup laughs and Bubbles smiles, shaking her head.

"Yeah," Butch replies excitedly. Brick looks even more...impressed? Shocked? Angry? Who knows.

"You swore right as you sent that damn wall of ice between Boom and I. Saved our asses, we would've been sliced and diced if you hadn't gone all ice queen on the horseman's ass. Which, by the way, was one of the coolest things I've ever seen..." He pauses, and a grin forms. "Pun intended."

"You motherfucker." Buttercup says expressionlessly as her counterpart cackles. Blossom looks flustered, Bubbles just smiles and leans into Boomer's shoulder, and Brick's face is unreadable. As usual.

"ANYWAY." Boomer says loudly, putting a halt to Butch's laughter. "What next?"

"You were there Boomer, you know what happens next." Butch says cheekily. Boomer glares at him and Butch coughs before continuing. "Okay so, after Blossom lost it Buttercup and I showed up and were like 'prepare to die bastard' but the horseman _attacks_ us, serious anger issues man, so I'm fighting with him and then Boomer joins me and we're like Batman and Robin - with me being Batman, of course -" He ignores Boomer's glare as he says that. "- and then, the horseman pulls the same damn sword he used on you, Brick, and he swings it down so fast I thought we were gonna _die_ , but right before the sword hits us, Rapunzel over here goes ' _no you fucking_ _don't_ ' and then there's a _wall_ between the horseman and boomer and me. It's a wall. Of ice. And the sword is stuck inside it." He pauses for breath. "And then the horseman starts spouting shit about Blossom not being mortal, and then he calls her some weird-ass name -"

"Yuki-onna." Buttercup supplies.

"- Yeah, that, thanks Sunshine. Anyway, he's going on about how Blossom's kind is the worst, yadda yadda yadda, and then. _Then_. He insults Brick. And Blossom over here? She turns into a walking, talking, _damn angry_ ice cube." Blossom half-heartedly glares at Butch, but it doesn't last long. She's too tired. And she can't think. What day was it again? "And she _throws_ the horseman _across the room_ and fucking cracks the goddamn marble wall. Remind me to never get on your bad side, Bloss." He looks at her and Boomer punches him to get him back on track. "Right, anyway. There's thunder, and lightning, and all of a sudden _this asshole_ -" Butch points accusedly to his oldest brother. "- decides to join the party. _After dying._ Mind explaining how _that_ happened? Was your stone heart too much for the fiery pits of hell? Did they send you back, saying you needed to develop some _feelings_ first?" He cackles again and Brick whacks him upside the head.

" _No_ , dumbass." Brick replies. "I saw Him."

"Him, as in, the cross-dressing lobster?" Boomer asks, eyes wide. Brick nods.

"Yeah. Somehow, I showed up in his kitchen with a fucking hole in my chest from that stupid sword. Got blood everywhere. He dropped his cookie tray." The others look a bit confused, and Blossom winces at the mention of his wound. "He asked me what I was doing there, and I told him about what happened - by the way, Bubbles, he said to tell you're his favorite, especially since apparently you're a banshee." Bubbles blinks. "Anyway. Him told me that since he resurrected us as his sons," He looks at his brothers. "We have demon blood."

For a few moments, it's silent.

"So...we're demons?" Butch clarifies. Brick nods. "Sweet."

"...What."

brick sighs. "Dammit Boom, let me finish." Boomer closes his mouth, a slight pout on his face. "Yes. We're demons. Which shouldn't be that surprising, considering what you girls are. Back to the story. Him didn't explain fully, only that we're demons and have additional powers that we haven't discovered yet. Mostly." He thinks back to when he was covered in flames. "Oh, and he also flipped his shit when I told him the headless horseman killed me. Said that the horseman has been giving him issues since he was first cursed 300 years ago, and when we killed him he was going to give the fucker eternal punishment or some shit like that." Brick crosses his arms. (Blossom is not staring, no she isn't, what are you talking about.)

"So he sent me back. Here I am."

x

"Soooo…" Butch trails off, "Yeah. We're fucking demons, the lobster king of hell raised Brick from the dead and sent him back here—and I thought Sunshine was the creepy one, damn—and ya'll went ape shit up in this place and killed the headless horseman for real this time."

Again, Buttercup finds it within herself to slap her forehead. Blossom cringes at his paraphrasing.

Buttercup sighs. "You're an asshole. That was terrible."

Butch raises his brows. "'Scues me, _you're_ the one who was draining me of my energy, thanks."

"WELL I DIDN'T MEAN TO FUCKING DO IT. YOU'RE THE LAST PERSON ON EARTH I WANT TO BORROW ENERGY FROM."

Bubbles smiles. "You know what that means? Your lives are intertwined forever. Out of all these people in the room, you subconsciously chose Butch without even realizing it. If that's not love, then I don't know what is."

Buttercup gives her sister the evil eye. It's super effective usually, but not this time. "I was using him, not making out with him or something. You're a banshee, not Cupid. Can it, sister."

"I should start a tab," Butch muses. "For you. When you use my energy. That way, I can collect on your debt."

Buttercup sneers, but is still mostly immobile and weak in his arms, much to her disdain. "I will slit your throat in your sleep and use it for some awful spell that turns you into a goat."

Blossom leans heavily against Brick, who is still shirtless. This night has been a wreck. She just wants to go back to baking dozens of pumpkin-flavored things and locking herself indoors for the next fifty Halloweens. As soon as the feeling returns to her fingers.

"One day," Buttercup hisses to Butch as he situates her on his back for the journey home, "Bubbles is going to do her banshee scream foretelling some unlucky bastard's death. And it's going to be you."

He flutters his lashes at her. "Oh honey, I know you love me so."

Boomer helps Bubbles to her feet. "Well, I'm officially done with Halloween for the next five or so years. I think I'll just hang out with you guys and help Blossom out in the kitchen." By 'help', he means sneak several treats right off the trays.

The redhead closes her eyes and almost smiles. "That sounds just fine to me." Brick slips a hand under her chin and presses another kiss to her lips. Then, he holds out a hand and hauls her to her feet.

Butch and Buttercup lead the way out of the cave, bickering all the while, but later she rests her head against his back and closes her eyes. Boomer and Bubbles are in the middle, holding hands and already making plans for their next date. The Powerpuff is still trying to figure out what to brush Brick's blood off on.

The two redheads bring up the back, Brick's arm thrown over her shoulder and her left hand covering the ugly reminder on his chest.

The cemetery is eerily quiet again, but in a friendlier way this time. As they pass by the statue without a head, Butch suddenly stops.

"Oh hey Blondie, where the hell did you disappear to earlier? Did that insane bastard get you too?"

Bubbles rubs the side of her face. "Well...actually..."

x

This incident does not deter the Utonium family's love of pumpkins, but afterwards, Bubbles bathes each and every one in holy water before the baking and carving process begins.

x

.

.

 **LONGEST OF THESE THREE. I IS A PROUD MOMMA.**

 **here you go, have the final installation (for now - i might add onto this thing randomly) of 'this is halloween'. leave a review!**

 **peace out girl scouts,**

 **two red converse**


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